. good morning. sandy's furry. the his ftorek storm delivers a crippling blow throughout the northeast. new jersey takes a direct hit. new york city especially hard hit. cabs floating down the street. subway tunnels floweded. a hospital evacuated overnight. tounds still under water in connecticut and long island and daylight is just beginning to reveal the full impact of it all, tuesday, october 30th. 2012. from nbc news, this is a special edition of "today,"

tracking sandy, with matt lauer and savannah guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. and good morning. welcome to "today" on a tuesday morning. i'm savannah guthrie. >> and i'm matt lauer. the damage from sandy is widespread and extensive. while the worst of it seems to be behind us, the storm is still having an impact all up and down the northeast. this was a stuation of choose your poison. some people got hit with devastating wind, others drenching rains. the storm surge did so much damage in some places it was all three of those. >> and exceeded even what forecasters had predicted, a terrible storm. many people waking up in the dark this morning. sandy officially made landfall near atlantic city, new jersey, about 8:00 p.m. last night. it was not a hurricane technically but a post-tropical cyclone that. had no bearing on its intensity and here's what we know this morning. at least 16 deaths are now being blamed on the storm here in the united states.

>> early estimates put the damage somewhere between $10 billion and $20 billion. that would make it one of the costliest storms in u.s. history, and more than 7 million people are now without power across the entire regions. >> hundreds of thousands of those outages are height here in new york city. lower manhattan hit by a record storm surge of 13 feet. it has flooded streets and the ground zero construction site. just look at the dramatic photo taken there overnight. >> some subway stations and tunnels are flooded as well. transit officials say the system has, quote, never faced a disas ter as devastating as this, end quote. during the height of the storm, the island of manhattan was virtually cut off with almost all of the major bridges and tunnels shut down. we've got the storm covered this morning. let's start with natalie morales in lower manhattan in battery park city. natalie, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, matt. as we are just waking up, millions are to realize the full

devastation the consequences and aftermath of sandy, as you can see here we're still feeling the effects here, the outer bands of that storm still present here. the whitecaps behind me here on the harbor as we'll still raging. clearly the story here last night was definitely the flooding. at the height of the storm there was a 13-foot storm surge. that a record-breaker here in new york city, and as you mentioned this is a city that was plunged into darkness as well. about 650,000 people just in the city alone. more than 6 million just along the -- up and down the eastern seaboard. now, this has been a deadly storm, certainly a storm that we're just beginning to really see the full effects, and we'll understand more as soon as the sun comes up, but clearly we will then see what really has

been the aftermath. waves pounded the new jersey coastline destroying parts of atlantic city's historic boardwalk. >> this storm as everyone has been saying it's not like any storm we've ever seen before. >> reporter: sparks flew from a con-edison explosion in manhattan, and snow fell in western virginia and tennessee, all scenes from super storm sandy, also known as frankenstrom or the storm of the century. >> this water is swallowing this neighborhood. >> reporter: it was downgraded late monday to a post-tropical cyclone, but when it hit land at around 8:00 p.m. with winds of up to 90 miles per hour, no one was spared its wrath. >> now we're seeing hurricane force wind gusts, and this is really pushing the atlantic on to the beaches here of north jersey. >> reporter: mlions of people and more than half a dozen states experienced devastating flooding, and over 7 million homes lost power. raging fires spread across the tri-state area.

in lower manhattan, the lights went out in the city that never sleeps. the power outage caused evacuations of some of the city's most vulnerable. over00 patients were carried down stairs and out of nyu's langone medical center, including babies in critical care. a building was ripped apart, left exposed to the storm, and a construction crane hung by threads 80 stories above the ground. >> unless you own a submarine, there's no way you're getting out of new york city. >> reporter: and there is no getting in. >> what looks like a river is actually the fdr drive. >> reporter: water gushed through the city, covering everything from ground zero to the brooklyn waterfront and the new jersey p.a.t.h. train. the mta chairman spoke to the historic damage saying the new york city subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disas ter as devastating as what we experience d last night. >> we need to keep the roads

clear. do not drive. let me repeat that. please, do not drive. >> reporter: as day breaks, the recovery effort begins, but the extent of the damage from this de deadly storm remains to be seen. now, of course, this is the city's financial center as well. the new york stock exchange will remain closed for a second day. now, this is only the second time in history that has happened. the last time back in 1888 during a blizzard. now, can you see once again, conditions have worsened here this morning. we're feeling some rain, again some high winds here once again, but certainly nothing like what we experienced yesterday at the height of this storm. matt and savannah, you talked about early damage estimates. they are saying anywhere between $10 billion and $20 billion, but it still may be too soon to tell. >> all right, natalie, downtown lower man hattan, battery park city where they saw a record storm surge. thanks, we'll check back in with you. speaking of the weather today, let's get to al roker in point

pleasant beach, new jersey, once again. al, good morning to you. >> well, good morning, savannah. yesterday i was out there on a dune. that dune is gone, and now the ocean rushed in when it was breached last night at about 8:00. we're on ocean avenue, and can you see, as far as you can see, it's all sand. down this way there's massive flooding. the sand goes all the way down along the length of this -- this town. it's really amazing. let's look and see where sandy is right now, 90 miles west of philadelphia, 65-mile-per-hour winds and moving west northwest at 15. peak wind gusts at 90 miles per hour out on the island in islip. 86 in westerly massachusetts. washington, d.c. saw wind gusts and today wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour will not be uncommon throughout parts of the atlantic, even as far west as lake erie. take a look at predicted wind gusts going on starting from this morning. buffalo 36, detroit 48.

new york city 30-mile-per-hour gusts. by tomorrow the winds are still breezy. not quite as bad. the highest water rises we had from kings point, over 12 feet of water, new haven 9 feet. set a record of wave heights off sandy hook of 32.5 feet and the rain was a big a big deal. new jersey almost 12 inches of rain. ocean city, seven. we have flood and coastal advisories from bangor, maine out to cleveland, ohio and down to washington, d.c. rainfall, the heaviest ravel up into new england, caribou, maine into new hampshire. we have a possibility of a severe thunderstorm watch being issued for much of new england later on this morning. we are not done with sandy, yet. there could be more power outages. matt, it looks like this will probably be easy called the storm of the century. matt? >> al roquener point pleasant

beach, new jersey. al, thank you very much. chris christie is the governor of that state of new jersey. good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. >> you guys took a direct hit, and i know you'll probably not know the extent of the damage until daylight and you get to see the areas by ground and by air, but based on the reports you've been getting overnight, what's the state of your state? >> it's a major disaster, matt. we have over 2.4 million people without power across the state. we've had flooding in the raritan bay and newark area. the city of newark is 95% without power due to substation flooding. all that came from the tidal surge that came up from the storm through raritan bay and newark bay, the same thing you see affecting new york city, and we have a battered, battered new jersey shore that i hope to tour a little bit later on today, but i think the losses are going to be almost incalculable. >> yeah. i was watching reports all afternoon and evening, governor,

from long branch and point pleasant beach and atlantic city, and do you have a lot of people that you think you're going to have to go out and account for this morning, search-and-rescue missions to find people that you haven't heard from? >> we are in the midst of search-and-rescue missions in atlantic city now, matt. we're in the midst of search-and-rescue missions in moonachie, new jersey, where there was significant flooding from, again, the tidal surge last night. that's up in bergen county. we've done a number of rescues already last night and through this morning. we have search and rescue teams positioned throughout the state. they are doing that right now. unfortunately, we've had three deaths so far in new jersey from the storm. we're hoping to make sure we don't add to that total. >> you need help obviously. i know you spoke to president obama on a couple of occasions yesterday. he's offered his help. what's the federal government's response been like so far? >> federal government's response has been great. i was on the phone at midnight again last night with the

president personally. he has expedited the designation of new jersey as a major disaster area. i was on the phone with fema at 2:00 a.m. this morning to answer the questions they needed answers to get that designation, and the president has been outstanding in this, and so the folks of fema, craig fugate and his folks have been excellent >> i know you took exception with the handling of this situation by the mayor of atlantic city, lorenzo langford. you were very upset that he didn't evacuate that city or all of that city and instead offered some people shelter in some city shelters, and you said that he was a rogue mayor and said, quote, i don't have a feud with the guy, but i wish he would do his job. a little time has passed between those comments and right now, the emotional level has come down. do you still feel that way? >> listen, the fact of the matter is i feel badly for the folks in atlantic city who listened to him and sheltered in atlantic city, and i guess my -- my anger has turned to sympathy for those folks, and we're in

the midst now of trying to go in and save them. daylight has come. we've got an urban search and rescue team with,000 both and 20 state police personnel. we have search and rescue teams down there as well. we're going to try to save the folks. i'm sorry that they received mixed messages. for some reason the mayor gave folks a mixed message. we need to get these people out and safe, and that's what we're going to do. >> finally like so many other states, the state is dealing with a financial crisis. the budget is very tight. how much of the bill for the cleanup in your state is going to have to come out of state's coffers? can you afford it? >> well, listen, we have to afford, it mai. the fact of the matter is i think we'll get significant federal assistance on this and major disaster declaration last night by the president is incredibly helpful in that regard. we'll work with our federal partners on this. if i have to make cuts in the budget in other places to make

sure we afford this i'll do it. too early to tell on that. i don't really know. i spoke to my budget folks yesterday, and they told me that that's not something they are concerned about at the moment. not something i'm concerned about at the moment. the first thing we've got to be concerned about is minimizing loss of life, saving people who need to be saved and then we'll move from there, and new jersey, listen, you know this, matt. new jersey is a tough place. we'll recover from this, and we'll be just fine and whatever we need to spend to get it done, we'll do what we need to do to make sure that gets done. >> we're your neighbors in this, and our thoughts go out to the people of new jersey. governor, good luck to you. >> thank you, matt. >> all right. we're going to speak to the mayor of atlantic city when he joins us in a little while. >> all right, matt. thanks. we're going to go to long beach, long island where mara schiavocampo is standing by with a live report. mara, good morning to you. >> reporter: savannah, good morning. you know, there's something i want to point out to you because this is supposed to be city streets, but right now it is totally and completely a beach,

and that's because the ocean last night during high tide at the height of this storm was flowing through this streets like a raging river. it looked like the kind of thing you might white water raft on flowing blocks and blocks into the street. when low tide came in it receded, and now it's high tide again. we can literally see this water starting to move in at a very fast pace. my guess would be that within the next hour we'll see water all through here again. let me show you a little bit of the damage that we've seen. of course, we have some water left over. can you see we're looking at the ocean now and how far it's come in. it's supposed to be much further back than, that and can you see the pace that it's moving towards us here and towards the city and towards the streets, and if we can look over here to some of the damage from last night, you know, most of the damage has been from flooding by far, not from the wind. windows are still intact for the most part, but you can see people's garage doors have been turned into pieces of wood essentially and that water has rushed all through these homes

for probably about one story. our hotel, for example, the entire first floor was filled with water. that really highlighted the major concern that officials had here which was flooding from the storm surge, not from rainfall, and that's exactly what happened. but long island, being a pens latt way it ula the way it is, it got it from the ocean and much of the bayside. much of this area was flooded from two directions. power outages, seeing massive numbers here. approaching 850,000 without power, and the power authority is warning it could be up to ten days before they get that restored. savannah. >> all right. mara schiavocampo on long beach this morning, thank you. connecticut governor dannel malloy is calling this the worst water event in his state's history. nbc's katy tur is in stonington, connecticut this morning. what's the scene there. >> reporter: thousands trapped but could have been so much worse without the mandatory evacuations. luckily a number of people did

get out. we do have to report two deaths for you this morning. one was a woman in mansfield. a tree fell on her house. we're told that she was electrocuted when power lines came down with it. also a couple of injuries in that house, but they were not life-threatening, as well as a fifthner eaton, connecticut, who was driving when a tree fell on his car. right now the weather has certainly calmed down here. there's not so many reports about what's coming out of this state right now, because there are so many people here without power. 635,000 customers without power right now. that's because of flooding. that's because of high winds. it's also because of massive trees like the one you're seeing behind me. if we come back out here live, can you see this tree is huge. it's fallen on to this house. this is just one of many trees across the stonington area and across the state that are bringing down power lines. they are blocking roads and making things very dangerous this morning. we are in the east part of connecticut. we're told it got much worse over in the west part of concorporation and i'm sure you'll be able to ask governor

malloy more about that as you talk to him right now. guys. >> thank you. connecticut cover dannel malloy is with us right now. governor, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> yesterday you used the word catastrophic to describe what would happen with this storm. did it live up to that expectation? how bad is it? >> it's pretty bad. the fire fighter died in easton is emblematic of that. we have trees down everywhere, poles down everywhere. the amount of flooding damage is unbelievable. we had thousands of people trapped in homes at the height of the storm last night. in fact, i went on tv to tell people to stay in place because we didn't want people to try to be swimming out or walking out through high water or driving out. having said all of that, i think the connecticut folks responded pretty well. most heeded the call. most did the right thing to get out of harm's way. we had a series of fires last night in greenwich and saybrook. we lost a number of houses and

housing units to fires, to flooding, to wind damage. obviously there will be a lot more assessment today. we know we have over 635,000 customers without power. we know we have water damage to at least three if not four major sewer treatment facilities that will take some period of time to repair. so we've got a lot of work ahead of us. i want to thank the president. united states who did a magnificent job in fema who had really done some amazing early work to get us ready, but now the hard work will start. >> and governor, you talked about the evacuations. do you have any sense of how many people may still be stranded this morning? do you have search and rescue efforts under way? >> we do have search and rescue efforts under way. we have -- we had mobilized 850 troops. they have been deployed throughout the state. we have a number of teams, regional teams, as well as others that are responding. the water's receded for a period of time, though they will start

to come back to some extent, much lower than what we saw last night, but, you know, we're going door to door and house to house to make sure people are okay and that if they need our assistance at this point, we're making it available. we had thousands of people in shelters last night, certainly hundreds of thousands of people probably staying with friends or relatives elsewhere in connecticut. i'm very grateful to the people of connecticut to responding. our municipal officials by and large did a magnificent job preparatory to the storm so that handling the storm at its height was more manageable than we might have thought. only because of the hard work that was done. >> well, a long day and days ahead for you and your team there. connecticut governor dannel malloy, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> matt? >> savannah, let's go back to the damage here in new york city. nbc's jeff rossen is on the streets of lower manhattan. jeff, good morning. jeff, can you hear me? >> reporter: i'm good. >> apparently we've lost communication with jeff. you'll be seeing that obviously throughout the day, a lot of

satellite issues and communications issues. one of the big stories here in new york city was a construction crane on 57th street between seventh and eighth avenue right in midtown manhattan. you're looking at youtube video of what happen. that was aiding in the construction of the tallest residential building in new york city, some 90 stories high, when the wind grabbed it and flipped it backwards, and that caused major panic in that section of the city. >> no question about it. there you have a live picture of that crane still dangling this morning. matt, i know you walked past it. there were moments when it was blowing in the wind >> you couldn't get too close, blocked things off from fifth over to ninth avenue. i stood on 57th street and took a couple pictures with my phone and could you see sections that have crane swinging in the breeze and the fear was that would come crashing down, almost 1,000 feet in the air. imagine what would happen if that came crashing to the

ground. >> needless to say they have evacuated the vicinity there. we want to go back you. >> hey, good morning savannah. this is ocean avenue. it is covered with sand. this entire area covered completely with sand. the atlantic beach, the atlantic ocean those were the dunes i was standing on. they have been eradicated. that allowed everything to come in. on philadelphia avenue, look at the flooding. it goes all the way down as far as you can see. it's repeated throughout point pleasant beach, new jersey and really the jersey shore. it is a lot of devastation. we have no idea really how bad it is. that's what's going on around the country, here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> here, the winds are dying down. we have rain falling. we had wet snow flakes in the northern and western suburbs. off to the west, we are getting

a little bit of wet snow that's showing up there. that white zone in western howard county, up into carol county, they are getting snow. temperatures around the region are just in the low 40s. as we get into tomorrow, thursday and >> and that's your latest weather. matt? >> all right, al. thanks very much. a long morning ahead. we'll be here to cover the aftermath of this storm from start to finish. more of the wrath of sandy, but first, this is "today" on nbc. anncr: seven-hundred-thousand jobs. that's what the plan george allen supports... would cost our economy.

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good morning. it's 7:26 right now. i'll aaron gilchrist. at this hour, 286,000 customers in the area don't have power because of sandy. non-emergency federal employees can take a leave. metro told news 4 it will decide later this morning if buses and trains will operate today. school closures at the bottom of the screen and at www.nbcwashington.com. rain in washington. storm team 4 radar showing the patch of white to the north. howard and carol counties getting wet snow. elsewhere getting the rain.

we'll have it with us from time to time throughout the rest of the day, remaining in the 40s. aaron? >> thank you. traffic right after this.

local roads seeing flooding. the exit ramp to the beltway is flooded. back to you. >> thank you. another update in 25 minutes. anot[ minto ] you know,nutes. those ads saying mitt romney would ban all abortions and contraception seemed a bit extreme. so i looked into it. turns out, romney doesn't oppose contraception at all. in fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest, or to save a mother's life.

this issue's important to me, but i'm more concerned about the debt our children will be left with. i voted for president obama last time, but we just can't afford four more years. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. . 7:30 now on a tuesday morning. it's the 30th day of october, 2012, as the northeast deals with the historic damage from hurricane sandy. looking at some flooding images. atlantic city was one of the cities along the jersey shore that took an awful lot of damage. the water from the ocean in some places meeting the water from the bay, and there is some controversy surrounding evacuation efforts from that city with the governor of new jersey criticizing the mayor. we're going to be talking to that mayor in just a couple of minutes. meanwhile inside studio 1a i'm mattlauer alongside savannah

guthrie. he have rain and further flooding remain threats today. >> in new york city the storm surge reached a record of more than 13 feet, flooding tunnels, subway stations and the electrical systems that power wall street and utility companies across the country telling people who lost power today it may be a week or more before electricity is fully restored. just ahead we'll check in with the man in charge of the federal response to this mega storm craig fugate. let's start with nbc's jeff rossen who is here in new york city checking on the damage. jeff, good morning to you. what are you seeing? >> reporter: hey, savannah, good morning. we were driving around overnight, and we were in the east village a of manhattan right now. this entire area was completely underwater, so the water is receded now. look what it's left behind. cars are literally strewn through the new york city streets. you are seeing this everywhere. these are cars that were parked along the side and literally floated into the middle. half of them have water damage. in some cases we're told the

water was up to here on these vehicles. i want to show you something else as well, bill, as we walk through here. here's another car on a main avenue that got into an accident with a con-ed car. this is the power company. people trying to put the electricity back on, and the issue now, we just talked to con-ed, one of their power plants here. we said when do you think the power will be back for all of these people? and as you know there are millions without. one worker told me i don't even know where to start. that's the situation here. power is out everywhere, no traffic lights. looking at these apartment buildings, and people now with first daylight are just now beginning to wake up and see. you can see cars are strewn all throughout. i've never seen anything like this, and i've been covering news in this city for over a decade, savannah. >> all right. jeff rossen on the streets of new york which look a little bit more like a parking lot more than usual these days. >> as we mentioned the storm came ashore very close to the

city of atlantic city along the jersey shore. there's massive flooding there. wcau's ted greenberg is there. ted, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, matt, yes. the wind is whipping here in atlantic city still, though not as strong as it was yesterday. we still have rain and, yes, can you see that we still have issues with flooding. some of the water has receded, but several parts of atlantic city still dealing with flooding this morning. the flooding caused by sandy and its tidal surge here was historic, the worst many in the resort have ever seen. we drove through atlantic city early this morning. we saw a huge amount of debris as a result of all of that water, including large wooden planks strewn about on the streets. some of that debris appeared to have come from a section of the famous boardwalk that was ripped apart by sandy yesterday. really an incredible and surreal sight to see during our travels yesterday. streets flooded with several

feet of water, with large sections of the mangled boardwalk floating high. the coastliny is veered severe beach erosion as the ocean washed over protective bay ofiers and into streets. large sections of the atlantic city and atlantic county new jersey where we are is without electricity this morning with 80,000 power customers in the dark in atlantic county, more than 50% of the customers served. an overnight curfew was in effect until 6:00 a.m. in atlantic city, though much of the resort resembled a ghost town. many of the city's residents complied with a mandatory evacuation order, although everyone did not. we're told about 300 people stayed in shelters within the resort overnight, and we've seen search and rescue teams out this morning in the neighborhood to assist anyone who may be stranded this morning. again, the water slowly receding here in atlantic city, but the back bays are still so full of water because they haven't had much of an opportunity to drain

back into the ocean, and there is concern about another high tide coming up later this morning. matt? >> all right. ted greenberg of wcau, thank you very much. lorenzo langford is the mayor of atlantic city and joins us now on the phone. mayor angford, good morning to you. >> good morning to you as well. >> what's your assessment of post-sandy atlantic city? >> well, let me say this. as devastating as this storm was with respect to property damage, i think the glass is half full and not half empty. we've experienced a minimal loss of life and injury, and i think for that all of us ought to be thankful and send up a big mighty prayer >> you know, your name got in the news yesterday, perhaps not for the reason that you had hoped, but the governor of new jersey called you out for your failure to fully evacuate the city. he called for that evacuation, and you offered some residents of atlantic city shelter in city shelters. talk to me about the decision. what happened. >> well, first of all, let me

say this, the governor is either misinformed and ill advised or simply just deciding to prevaricate. that's not what happens. here we are in the throes of a major catastrophe and the governor has chosen a time such as this to play politics. i think it's reprehensible that he would stoop to the level to try to make a political situation out of something that is so serious at this situation. >> well, here, let me tell you what the governor said. he said for whatever reason mayor langford urged people to stay in the shelters in the city despite my admonition to evacuation. he gave them comfort and for some reason to say. >> what's his source? >> i'm asking you. did it happen? is it accurate? >> i'm telling you that that is absolutely false and the governor needs to say where the source is, where did he get his information, he's dead wrong. he'll join us a little later in the morning and we'll ask him that question. how many people did spend the night in shelters in your city,

mayor? >> well, fortunately most of our residents did heed the repeated warnings that they should flee the city. as you know, we are a barrier island and the clarion call did go out from the governor's island to suggest everybody flee the island and fortunately most of the residents in the city of atlantic city heeded that advice. unfortunately, as there will be the case there are always those who will not heed the warning and decide to stay. it's better to have options than not need them than to need options and not have them. we had a plan in place for those few residents who would decide at the last minute that they would not try to heed our warning and vacate the city but would try to hunker down, tough it out only to find that at some other time they wanted to flee. we had that contingency plan in place. >> mayor lorenzo langford, mr. mayor, if you're free a little later in the morning, perhaps we'll try to get you and the governor on at the same time. appreciate your time this morning. >> i would love nothing better than that, than to confront the

governor mano-a-mano. >> all right. we'll see if we can arrange that. thank you very much. savannah? >> we want to go back now to al who is along the jersey shore. al, good morning. >> well, good morning. again, sandy is 90 miles west of philadelphia, so it is still a potent system, and in fact we have coastal flood watches and warnings right along the coastline. we've got coastal flood warnings. inland we have flash flood watches and flood watches. plus, the winds are still going the winds are still going to be a big deal as far south as atlanta. we have wind advisories as far north and west at detroit and a snowstorm going on. blizzard warnings for parts of virginia and west virginia as well. in fact, take a look at the snowfall amounts. we are expecting anywhere from another one to two feet of snow from bluefield all the way up to elkins and anywhere from one to three inches of snow into central and western ohio. sandy still packing a potent

punch. the winds are howling as far west from the great lakes. that's what's going on around the country. >> good morning. i'm tom kierein. we are getting passing showers around most of the region. a little wet snow in montgomery county. here is the seven day outlook. occasional showers throughout the day. the winds gradually diminish. gusts around 30. we might get sun tomorrow afternoon. highs in the mid-50s as well as on thursday. sunshine on friday, saturday >> we're in the middle of the wrap around rain bands from sandy right now, savannah, with the wind picking up again. back to you. >> all right, al. thank you very much. a lot more on sandy as we continue here. the widespread flooding, damage and its impact on the presidential race. the election just one week from today, but first these messages.

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>> i know you're just getting a handle on the scope and magnitude of the damage here, but if you could characterize it, how bad is it? >> it's bad enough that based upon calls with both governors from new york and new jersey, the president took the increasing step of issuing major disaster declarations to improve assistance for those individuals heavily hit. they can call 1-800-261-fema or go to disaster.gov. we're still dealing with a lot of impacts. focus on new jersey and new york, we've got connecticut and pennsylvania and others as far to the west as west virginia dealing with a blizzard so this is very much a response operation. things are still occurring. the storm is not over, but, again, based on this, the president took extraordinary acts to turn on even more assistance in some of the hardest hit areas, and we continue to work with other governors to increase the amount of assistance we're providing.

>> there's so much going on here. there's the rain and snow and power outages. what is your top priority this morning, your top concern? >> safety. search and rescue operations that are under way, again, on the federal side, the u.s. coast guard is our lead federal agency. we've dispatched several of the urban search and rescue teams with swift water capabilities. again, because it's still raining, and now with the blizzard in west virginia, our concern is primary life safety, and then we'll start getting to the critical infrastructure. we've had hospitals, nursing homes impacted, power outages. the list of things is enormous. first thing is keep people alive, keep people safe, rescue those in danger. >> are you able to even estimate how many people might be stranded and in need of a rescue at this hour? >> no. i don't real very those numbers. again, we're working through the governors' teams on what additional assistance. the governors have called out their guard. they have a lot of their own

capabilities. we're augmenting that, but right now our goal is to make sure that as these needs are identified, resources that have already been moved into the region, are there supporting the governors' teams. >> before i let you go, i have to ask you. there was an alert declared for the oyster creek nuclear power plant in new jersey because of too much water intake. do you know what became of that? is it secure? >> yeah. right now there's no imminent threat of releases. there's no protective actions around the plant. we're working very closely with the nuclear regulatory commission for that and any of the other power plants that are in the path of this storm. again, that is one of those issues that we work very closely with the plant operators, nuclear regulatory commission to ensure all steps are being taken to ensure the safety of the plants. some of these reporting requirements do those in the severity of the storm that they have to make those notifications based upon conditions that. does not mean that they are in an imminent threat at the plant. it means they have to report these because of the severity of the storm. >> fema administrator craig

fugate, good to have you this morning, thank you. >> thank you. >> and we are back with much more of "today" right after this. hey! you kids almost ready? i've got breakfast waiting for you. wooo! uh oh. what? mom's doing her exercise video again. when mom's on a health kick, all of us are. and now she's made us breakfast. uh oh. [ male announcer ] eggo nutri-grain waffles. you know it's made with 8 grams of whole grain and is a good source of fiber. all they know is it tastes great.

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11:00 p.m. severe flooding. fire fighters had a lot of difficulty getting to that spot. >> it's a spot where the houses are very close together. they call it the walk, and, yeah, it was really tough for the fire fighters to get in. i saw some images of fire fighters really kind of at a distance being very frustrated that they couldn't get in, but that's clearly a neighborhood devastated by the flames. >> we've even seen reports that some of the hydrants in the area were underwater, not surprisingly. of course, a lot of images are coming in and people telling us about the flooding that's happened in their neighborhoods. we saw in al's live short a former street is now basically a beach covered in sand. >> yeah. i mean, one of the images that i saw that was just startling to me, the brooklyn battery tunnel leading from manhattan over to brooklyn, just a ton of water inside. obviously rushing in from street level. i understand there was some water in the mid-town tunnel. lincoln tunnel stayed open throughout this storm, but there was a time when new york city, the island of manhattan, seemed awfully isolated from the rest of the five boroughs.

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7:56 is the time now on this tuesday, october 30th. 2012. good morning, i'm eun yang. don't be surprised if you see a lot of images like this one. this is a car stuck. this was closed by police, but the driver decided to go through it anyway. not a good move. danella sealock with more on the traffic. good morning. >> still seeing flooding in the area. 29 is flooded between lockwood drive and university boulevard. if you are taking the interstate, specifically the beltway, clear in maryland and virginia. local roads, it's where you are going to see the trouble. >> thank you. we'll take a quick break and check the forecast when we come back. stay with us. teacher: this is west virginia, pennsylvania, delaware.

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good morning. still getting rain across most of virginia and maryland. a little wet snow where you see areas of white and pink, north of washington into howard and carol counties. chilly. only low 40s. highs upper 40s today. drying out after that. >> thank you. an

8:00 now on this tuesday morning, the 30th of october, 2012. you're looking at a daring coast guard rescue at sea during sandy. it happened off the coast of north carolina, and coming up we're going to talk to the brave people who risked their lives to save the crew of the "hms bounty," but, of course, there was also loss of life. good morning again. i'm savannah guthrie alongside matt lauer. >> i can hear what they would say, we were just doing our jobs and when you hear what they did to save those 14 people, they went way up and beyond the call of duty. remarkable. the worst of sandy may be over, but floodwaters could rise in lots of the part of the

northeast this morning as high tide rolls in. al will have more on thatn just a couple of minutes. >> all right ahead, sandy has both president obama and governor romney standing down on the politics with the presidential race exactly one week away. they have canceled their public events today and friday's all-important jobs report might be delayed. we'll talk about the storm's impact on the race and the economy with chuck todd and cnbc's jim cramer just ahead. >> a quick note for you. we're sad to say that due to sandy we will not be having our halloween celebration on the plaza tomorrow, so if you were planning to join us out here in costume, we want you to stay home, stay safe. we will get that done at some other point. things are more important. >> they are indeed. you'll have to put the ponte hose away for another year. get the latest on the storm, the record flooding we've seen in lower manhattan. let's get to natalie morales in battery park city in the southern tip of mat hannan. natalie, good morning to you again. >> reporter: good morning to you, savannah, once again. we're fully now beginning to

realize the devastation of sandy. as you have mentioned in the reporting, at least 16 deaths total being blamed on this storm. downtown here in lower manhattan, can you see the waters have receded. at the height of the storm though here in battery park there was a storm surge of 13 feet. that is a record-breaker here in new york city. at least 6 million people are without power along the eastern seaboard, and hundreds of thousands of those here in new york city still without power as well. in new jersey we are told that a quarter of the state as well is without power. this is the city's, of course, financial center, the heart of the world's markets, and today once again the new york stock exchange is remaining closed for a second day. this is only the second time in its history that this has happened. the last time was back in 1888 after a blizzard. as you've also been reporting, a lot of subways experiencing as well problems. seven subway tunnels flooded

along the -- under the east river as well, so the metro transit authority as you heard, the chief saying that this is the worst devastation in the subway system's 108-year history, and getting in and out of the city is still proving to be a very difficult challenge in and around the city as well, but all major bridges and tunnels are closed except for the lincoln tunnel which remains opened. by the way, i'll point out across the river this way, you see here is jersey city, the financial center of jersey city right there, and they are also experiencing a lot of what we're experiencing down here in lower manhattan. up north just a bit is hoboken, new jersey, which i can tell you from firsthand experience where my family, is they are all safe, but that town is pretty much submerged in a lot of water. there is no getting in and out of hoboken, new jersey, as well, a city of about 50,000 there. a lot still feeling the devastating impacts of this storm. matt?

>> thanks very much. back to al still down in point pleasant beach, new jersey. al, good morning again. >> well, good morning, matt, and, again, this is the source of all the misery here in point pleasant beach. there's the atlantic ocean. we were on a dune there yesterday. if you recall, that dune had been built after a northeastner 1992 to hold back the sea. well, around 8:00 last night it gave up the ghost, and you can see what the results are. we are talking about massive devastation here. sand as far as you can see. and we have folks getting ready to do some taping. ron allen and his crew down there, but if you look beyond that. you can see flooding that goes philadelphia avenue. the latest, speaking of philadelphia, sandy is 90 miles west of philadelphia, pennsylvania. still has 65-mile-per-hour winds. it's moving west-northwest at 15 miles per hour. the winds were brutal. 90-mile-per-hour gusts in ice

lip. boston, 62-mile-per-hour winds. the wind is still a big story. up to bangor, maine out to michigan, down to georgia, we are talking wind advisory, wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour. even the great lakes, lake erie, gusts of near 70. look at the prediction for wind gusts today. buffalo, 36. 43 in cincinnati. today into tomorrow morning, the winds start to die down. they are still pretty strong. that's what's going on around the country, here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> good morning. still dealing with sandy. it's winding down and we have rain and actually the pockets of pink you see is where there's wet snow mixing with the rain. there's snowfalling out of the mountains. in washington, the orange and yellows there's moderate rain, fairfax county in northwest washington into southern montgomery. occasional showers the rest of the day, remaining in the 40

>> this is where we were last night, these buildings. now, savannah, they are rendered uninhabitable because of the damage that's been done to them by the atlantic ocean. back to you. >> all right, al. thank you so much. >> we're going to have more on the storm in a moment. right now let's get a check of the morning's other headlines. tamron hall is sitting at the news5a desk. good morning >> >> good morning. sandy's steam is being felt on the campaign trail as analysts feel the extreme weather could disrupt voting in key swing states including virginia and ohio. meantime, both the president and the republican rival mitt romney are angling to project authority in the face of the present disaster, both abandoning campaign events to speak with emergency officials. we'll have more on this coming up for you in a live report. two nato service members were killed today in southern afghanistan's helmand province. it appears to be the latest in a string of insider attacks.

officials say the victims were shot by a man wearing an afghan police uniform. baking giant ubsag announced massive layoffs today on the heels of a $2.3 billion loss for the third quarter. most of the 10,000 jobs cut will be in great britain and in the united states. the layoffs total about 15% of the ubs total work force. one of hockey's premiere events might fall victim to the nhl lockout. espn new york reports that this year's winter classic may be cancelled. the league and players union have not held negotiations in nearly two weeks, and regular season games have been cancelled through november. there appears to be high-level fallout from the apple maps fiasco. the longtime head of iphone software development scott forestall will be leaving next year. apple did not give a reason but it was forestall's division that

oversaw the software update that replaced google maps with apple's first mapping app. that app drew so much criticism apple apologized to its millions of customers. intrepid nbc late night host jimmy fallon did not let monday's storm stop his comic relief. fallon opened his show, you see there, on the almost deserted streets of manhattan and then delivered his monologue without an audience. >> thank you very much, thank you. welcome to "late night with jimmy fallon," everybody. please, please, keep it down. >> you're performing as if there was an audience. >> well, i'm assuming that people at home will be watching either on their laptop or get their generators out and then they are going to want to see and want to leave room to laugh. >> everybody. >> david letterman also taped his show without an audience because of the storm, joking that if he were home, he'd be

boarding up television sets. it is now 8:08. back to matt and savannah. sometimes you need a little laughter to keep from you crying when you look out at some of the damage. the show does go on sometimes. >> it does go on. thank you very much. >> we have our own laugh track here with the crew. >> as long as we have mark here, we're okay. >> coming up next, the coast guard members who put their lives on the line for that dramatic rescue at sea during sandy. we'll talk to them right after this. [ ding dong ]

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and the search is still on for that 63-year-old captain. coast guard aircraft are on the scene, also cutters out looking off the coast of north carolina for that last missing crew member, the captain, but as you said, 14 other people are lucky to be alive after a heroic and daring rescue mission. >> first survivors coming out of the raft. >> reporter: in tropical storm force winds crew members of the ill-fated ship wearing orange survival suits are hoisted aboard coast guard helicopters. for the chopper crews, it was a daring mission into the teeth of the storm. >> the transit out there was relatively low level, about 300 feet so we could stay out of the clouds. there was a lot of rain and wind >> reporter: drama beganzf5 sun night when the "hms bounty," a replica of the 18th century vessel that made captain blye famous began taking on water, its pumps failing and losing propulsion. the decision was made early monday morning to abandon ship

in two life routes. the lieutenant commander and co-pilot lieutenant jane pena piloted the first of two jayhawk helicopters that soon arrived over the scene. >> the first survivor to be found, the only one, that happened to be in the water. he was in a survival suit, and pretty much just laid out in the water. >> reporter: 13 others were huddled in enclosed life boats. coast guard video captured a rescue swimmer being lowered to them and in to the heaving ocean. >> being down there in the waves is more like being in a washing ma scene. >> reporter: petty officer todd tried to help the crew. >> i hopped in and said, hey, i'm dan. i heard you need a ride. there was a chuckle between them as well >> reporter: ship was featured in marlon brando's 1962 film "mutiny on the bounty" as well as a sequel to "pirates of the carribean." the ship left connecticut on thursday en route to isn't petersburg, florida. on saturday as it attempted to steer clear of the hurricane, a

posting on the ship's facebook page read rest assured, the "bounty" is safe and in very capable hands. "bounty eat" current voyage is a calculated decision, not at all irresponsible or with a lack of foresight as some have suggested. robert hanson is the ship's owner. >> he was heading way out east to try to go around it, and we just don't know what happened yet. >> reporter: the coast guard debriefed members of the crew trying to get a handle on exactly what happened. meantime, matt, family members of the crew have arrived here in elizabeth city to bring them home. >> all right. lester hold down in elizabeth city this morning. lester, thank you very much. three members of the coast guard team that helped rescue the crew of the "hms bounty" are with us now. lieutenant commander steve bond, lieutenant jenny fields and petty officer daniel todd, good morning to all of you. let me just start by saying job well done. steve >> thank you. >> steve, let me start with you. you were the pilot of the second

jayhawk rescue helicopter sent to the scene. what was it like navigateing? what was the situation like when you got there? >> well, it was a little difficult from the location. [ poor audio ] there were very strong winds, low clouds. once we got on scene thankfully just after sunrise, so we were able to do everything without the night vision goggles and see everybody in the water. >> daniel, i want to talk about what you said. you got down into -- you were one of the guys lowered down into the sea. you got to that life boat and you tried to calm everybody down by saying, hi, i'm dan. you sound like a pretty cool customer. and then you went down and one by one you brought those people up to the helicopter. you didn't do it once.

did you it nine times from what i've heard yourself. it's a pretty remarkable feat. does the training just kick in? >> yes, it does. you know, we're comfortable in our own abilities to be able to go out there and do that. i mean, for me it was kind of luck of the draw. i was able to go out there and be able to perform those tasks yesterday, but any one of the people that i work with here in my rescue swimmer shop, i work with 13 other guys, and any one of them could have done what i did yesterday, so, you know, it's -- it's just -- it is what we do, kind of like you said earlier. >> jenny, i know you had a chance to speak to some of the people that were rescued. tell me a little bit about their emotional state of mind. >> when we first started pulling the first few survivors in the helicopter, they were a little taken back and a little scared about being up there with us, and as more survivors came into the helicopter, they started seeing their friends, got a

little bit more happy, a little bit more excited to be out of situation that they were in, as we departed the scene they started to realize they were leaving and there were people still left behind. we definitely stayed out there and kept looking. >> you talk about people left behind. the coast guard retrieved 14 people on monday morning and later that evening another crew member was found and that person died. the captain of the ship has yet to be located. given what you saw in terms of the conditions of the seas off the coast guard there, what are your hopes, do you think, of finding that person alive? >> well, we have a lot of people that work in the coast guard. we have command centers and district staff that all work together. they have computers and algorithms and analyze the weather and the survivability time and they let us know to plan the searches accordingly to have the best possible outcome. >> i should say, we should thank you for what you do on a daily basis, but we want to thank you

what you do in particular on days like yesterday when it takes all your skills to save your lives. job well done, guys. >> thank you. >> all right. and we're going to have more of "today" on a tuesday morning right after this. [ male announcer ] on one corner, one pharmacist started it all: charles walgreen had a mission to help people be happy and healthy. from inventing the first chocolate malt... to creating a nonprofit pharmacy for our troops... to the first child safety caps. walgreens has been innovating for over a hundred years. and we're just getting started. with more and more ways to be well every day. here at the corner of happy and healthy.

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it's hard to believe, believe it or not, election day is a week away, but the reality is that neither candidate for president may hit the campaign trail for another couple of days which leaves, of course, precious little time to persuade voters in this incredibly close election. with the campaign largely on hold, president obama hunkered down at white house prepared the nation monday for what could be sandy's long lasting impact. >> the public needs to prepare for the fact that this is going to take a long time for us to clean up. the good news is we will clean up, and we will get through this >> reporter: president awoke monday in orlando for what was supposed to be a one-day three-state blitz alongside former president clinton. instead, he and aides called an audible and they headed back to washington to focus on the storm. at the midday briefing mr. obama insisted the campaign was not on his mind. >> i'm worried about the impact on families, and i'm worried about the impact on our first responders. i'm worried about the impact on our economy and on transportation. you know, the election will take

care of itself next week. >> reporter: meanwhile, for much of monday mitt romney tried to walk a fine line, balancing campaigning in ohio and iowa with compassion for storm victims. in ohio he appealed for americans to put politics aside. >> we've faced these kind of challenges before, and as we have, as soon as americans come together, and this looks like another time when we need to come together, all across the country, even here in ohio. >> reporter: still, romney did not entirely abandon politics. >> the people of the entire nation are counting on ohio because my guess is -- my guess is that if ohio votes me in as president, i'll be the next president of the united states. >> reporter: both candidates have cancelled all of their own public events for today. the president was supposed to be in colorado and wisconsin, and mr. romney had planned to be in new hampshire, but this doesn't mean the campaigns are not still battling below the radar. the latest flashpoint, a romney tv ad running in ohio making this claim about jeep.

>> obama took gm and chrysler into bankruptcy and sold chrysler to italians who are going to build jeeps in china. >> reporter: campaigning in ohio with former president clinton, vice president biden blasted the ad as false. >> chrysler has fellow bliged to go public and say there is no truth to this. jeep has no intention of shifting production of its jeep models out of north america to china. >> reporter: and while mitt romney is technically not campaigning today, he's doing a storm relief event, savannah, in the state of ohio. >> all right. chuck, a lot of folks are asking us this morning, is there a possibility with these widespread power outages that could last days, if not weeks, is there a chance the election day itself could be delayed? >> reporter: it's very unlikely. look, the presidential election day is something that is set in the constitution. now, states run elections, and they can decide to postpone, if they wanted to, it's happened before. new york city, of course,

postponed new york city elections on 9/11 on the day that it happened. they postponed that. now, that said what did come up yesterday during the fema calls with craig fugate and state officials was could states get reimbursed for having to, for instance, move voting precincts, get extra generators in to get the election going, that is what states are figuring out now, and that's the most likely scenario here is that people may find out their voting place is moved in order to get power to them, things like that, but the idea of a delay right now, that seems to be way, way out of the question and very, very unlikely. >> and very quickly, chuck, we are seeing an effect on early voting in swing states affeceç by the storm. >> reporter: well, that is true. particularly virginia is the place when you look at the battleground states that's most affected by this, a little bit in ohio. so some things i know that maryland delayed some early votes so there's some of those delays. right now it doesn't seem to have a huge impact yet. >> all right. chuck todd, thank you.

just ahead, what you need to do before filing an insurance claim, and many people waking up realizing that they may need to do that very soon. many homes suffering extensive damage in the storm. we'll have the information you need to know information you need to know after a check of your local news. good morning. 8:26 on this tuesday, october 30th. i'm aaron gilchrist. we are still seeing the effects of sandy. tom kierein is here with the forecast. >> thankfully, sandy is winding down this morning. we are still getting rain and wet snow flakes mixing in in virginia and maryland. it's heavy snow in the mountains. the areas in pink, a few wet snow flakes southeast of washington and north of washington. elsewhere, it's cold rain. low to mid-40s now. later today, upper 40s. winds gusting to 30 miles per hour will diminish tonight. sun back wednesday into the

weekends. aaron? >> thank you. >> traffic is coming up next.

good morning. still pretty tricky on local roadways. rock creek parkway is closed between beach drive and arlington memorial bridge because of flooding. a downed tree is blocking the

right lane. you are able to pass but you have to stick to the left. again, if you have to head out, use caution on local roads. lots of trees are down. back to you. >> we have complete coverage of sandy at www.nbcwashington.com. anncr: which do you believe? what mitt romney's tv ads say about women? or what mitt romney himself says? mitt romney: do i believe the supreme court... should overturn roe v. wade? yes. and it would be my preference that they, that they... reverse roe v. wade. hopefully reverse roe v. wade.

overturn roe v. wade. planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. i'll cut off funding to planned parenthood. anncr: no matter what mitt romney's ads say. we know what he'll do. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message. it's 89:30 now on a tuesday morning, october 30th, 2012. there is a look at narragansett, rhode island right along the shore. one of the many beautiful and historic towns in that state. they had widespread damage caused by hurricane sandy, and, again, this is a story that's being repeated all up and down the east coast. it really shows you the size and

the intensity of that storm. narragansett about 300 miles from where sandy actually made landfall near atlantic city, new jersey. i'm matt lauer along with savannah guthrie. >> good to see the work of repair already getting under way. this could be one of the costliest national disasters in u.s. history, and it can get pretty complicated to figure out what is covered by your homeowners insurance. we'll have good answers coming up. >> obviously, i don't think we have to tell you, travel in this region is basically at a standstill. the impact being felt on the airlines across the country, and even around the world, so what do you do if you need to go somewhere, or you booked a flight that's now been cancelled? we'll get advice from an expert on that as well, but first let's go to nbc's jeff rossen. he's driving around in lower manhattan and seeing what he can find. jeff, good morning again. jeff, can you hear us. >> reporter: apologize. we just lost our -- lost our

phone connection. the phone service here in manhattan is absolutely terrible. want to show you for all of you who have been living through this storm and we heard the wind and the rain pounding against our windows, it's hard to imagine what was actually flying through the air, and we actually have an idea now. look at pieces of plywood that fell on top of cars. if you look over here, and this is just in the streets here of manhattan, talking about metal pipes. this piece of typing, i mean, it's pretty heavy, off a local building. this is the kind of thing that can -- that can hit cars and actually people. i mean, here's something in the middle of the avenue. this piece of metal is so heavy, i was trying to -- i can't even pick it up, so that's the strength of this storm, and how much debris was flying through the air. if you look down the street, i mean, people with daylight are now just beginning to come out of their homes, con-ed is out trying to restore power, and we should mention evidenced by the traffic lights right up here, there is no power to any of

these buildings. no power to the traffic lights. we've been driving all over manhattan this morning. in fact, we're broadcasting right now. my camera man has a backpack on. no trucks. we've been able to be pretty mobile driving through the streets, absolutely eerie. it's absolute mayhem in the middle of manhattan. no traffic lights and no one really knows where to go, and can you see people are coming out into the streets taking photos, trying to find their vehicles, which, by the way, are strewn up and down these streets. the water in this area had actually been so high, and we showed you earlier in the show, cars have been moved perpendicular to the street, floating away, and so that's the situation we're dealing with. bill, if we can swing around right here. here's another piece of plywood. this is a major new york city manhattan avenue, and there are pieces of wood absolutely still in the street. people are just trying to figure out now when they are going to get their power back. by the way, the answer to that question, very much unclear.

we actually were speaking with some con-ed workers earlier and said what do you think this can happen? what's the estimate? a man told our producer jen long don't know when. we don't even know where to start, and so as we can give you another live picture down the street here. people just beginning to get to their cars. here's a con-ed car trying to figure out exactly where to go. one other important note before we go, matt and savannah, there are pulledles, and if you're watching in the new york and new jersey area right now, there are puddles, and you walk through these puddles and you think to yourself everything is fine. a woman had been electrocuted by walking in one of those puddles. you can also fall into a manhole so that's the situation here. again, i cannot hear you, so i cannot answer any questions so back to you. >> jeff rossen, thank you very much. something we take for advantage, the sun streaming down behind us and there's a young lady behind us with a sign you saw earlier

that says -- >> mom, i'm okay, and we are4cv happy to hear that. >> we want to go further up the coast now. sandy, of course, brought high winds and a damaging storm surge to parts of rhode island's coast. showed you some of those images. nbc's stephanie gosk is in hard hit narragansett, rhode island. stephanie, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. well, the day after a storm like this is a day to assess, and it's a day to start to clean up. police have closed off this road behind me so they can clean it up. what you're looking at is the debris that came over the sea wall over the course of yesterday. we watched it pound hour after hour, and as high tide hit last night, it breached the sea wall and flowed into this town, so there is massive damage here and also along the coast of rhode island, a lot of the coastal communities here were evacuated. people now are going to try to get back to their homes and figure out just how bad it was. some of those people know how bad it is already. he's the owner of this restaurant behind me called the coast guard house.

we actually had dinner there sunday night, and it has been basically destroyed. all of the windows blown out and all of the furniture in the ocean are up on the streets. he's not sure where he's going to get the money or the time even to fix t.savannah? >> all right. stephanie, thanks. >> that restaurant has been there for years and years. i used to live in rhode island. been there many times. he's in point pleasant beach, new jersey. >> al? >> seems like we had a little bit of trouble communicating with al this morning. we will check back with you in just a little while. >> there's so many aspects of this story. one of them is the economic impact. the stock market is closed for a second day in a row so what impact will the storm have as this nation is still trying to recover. jim cramer is the host of "mad money" on cnbc. he is at cnbc headquarters in new jersey this morning. jim, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> stock market closed for a second day. i assume you think that's a good

call. >> this is one of those things where if you can't get to it, we still need humans, you think it's all by machines, it's not. this has only happened 1888. extremely unusual, but, yes, there will be no action today at all. >> as you mentioned, yes, you do need to have people physically there, but we do do a lot of trading electronically now. wasn't there also a concern that there might be some manipulation had the markets opened. >> there could be so few players that you could move stocks in one direction if you had a couple million dollars. what people don't recognize is even though we can trade machine to machine, if individuals aren't involved, there is a capability for true mayhem, and i think that was a great reason why there should be no trading today. >> we are hearing figures this morning, early estimates, absolutely staggering, about tens of billions of dollars in damage from this storm, and i'm sure everyone has the same thought. we are already an economy that is struggling. what larger impact do you think it might have? >> okay. last time irene, right now, 7

billion initial estimate, totally wrong. it ultimately was 15 billion. there's about 20 billion that came into the economy from federal payment and from insurance. katrina, $100 billion, again, took a long time to rebuild what. i would say is the initial impact is very, very bad, but when the federal government gets involved, waves its wand, and when the insurers pay, you tend to have a very quick rebound that can actually help, if it's huge enough, the gross domestic product of the united states. >> i want toé@ focus in on tha not to be intencenssensitive to people are dealing with, but there are serb sectors of the economy that will benefit. i would assume the construction industry, to start with one. >> yes. hurricane andrew in 1992, the construction industry boomed. the lumber industry boomed. glass. a lot of companies simply had to send everything down to florida, and that raised the praise across the board throughout the united states. highly unusual. that was pretty much the only time that i've seen the gross national product really jump off of a hurricane. this could be like that.

that's how big this one might end up being. >> and very quickly, i'm sure you had heard rumors, reports that potentially the federal government would have to delay the jobs report that's expected on friday. do you have anything, the latest on that? >> as of this morning, the quote that we're getting from labor is they are still hopeful that we will see a number that is probably the most important number before the election. >> all right. jim cramer at cnbc headquarters, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> let's give this another shot to go to al in point pleasant beach, new jersey. al, sorry we cut away from you so quickly before. you sounded from our end a little like mr. roboto so we're back to you now. >> i have been working on that while the lights were out here. again, besides sandy here in the northeast, in the northwest there are big problems as well as we take a look at the map. heavy rain throughout the pacific northwest. 1 to 2 inches not unlikely. in fact, it's going to be a mess there for the next couple of days. through the southwest, gorgeous weather. plenty of sunshine. windy conditions though all the

way back through the great lakes and down into the southeast because of sandy. for tomorrow more of the same. the winds hang on, although not quite as bad throughout the northeast and new england. rain continues into the plains. beautiful weather works its way through the southwest allough the southwest back into southern california and back as far east as texas. that's what's going on around the country, here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> good morning. getting reports of snow since 8:00 to the north of thurmont north of camp david. it's still snowing there. the areas in pink, wet snow flakes coming in, mixing with rain. the ground is so warm, nothing is accumulating here. it is accumulating where a blizzard warning remains in effect. rain off and on >> and that's your latest weather. savannah? >> all right, al, thank you. coming up next, how you get to

where you need to go if sandy has thrown a wrench into your travel plans, but first this is "today" on nbc.

we're back now with more on the impact of hurricane sandy up and down the east coast. the storm created a travel logjam coast to coast. thousands of flights were cancelled for a second straight day. nbc's tom costello is at reagan national airport. tom, good morning. >> good morning, matt, and this place, as we have shown you yesterday and today, is absolutely deserted. the flight status boards all show that every flight is cancelled. the numbers today, we just got from flight stats, 5,700 flights cancelled along the east coast or flights to or from the east coast, and along the course of this storm, we've now got hundreds of thousands of passengers who have been inconvenienced by the storm. this massive storm has turned out to be a halloween week nightmare with travelers going

nowhere fast. from d.c. to chicago to san diego, cancelled is again the word of the day for flights coming to or from the east coast. all day long, hurricane sandy has been waging a war with a berm, a dune that had been built after a nor'easter in 1992. well, finally hurricane sandy has won. >> reporter: with one eye on al roker and the weather channel, all of the airlines, u.s. airways, united, delta, southwest, american, jetblue, are again today cancelling flights into the airports hardest hit by the storm and high winds. washington, baltimore, philly, new york and boston. inside the terminals are deserted. outside the gates and runways are empty. by 6:00 p.m. monday 14,000 flight cancellations and climbing fast. in d.c. we found two foreign exchange students from italy stuck, unable to get back to rochester. >> we wanted to spend a couple

of days in washington, but then -- and then come back to rochester in a few days, but then this happened so the weather, and we are stuck here. >> reporter: in l.a., nathan cooper is also stuck trying to get back to newark. >> i stood in line for five hours to get to our flight. >> reporter: and in paris jeff barron was one of thousands of travelers stuck in europe unable to get back to the states. >> we obviously need to get a place to stay here in paris. >> reporter: airlines have moved their planes out of harm's way, parking them at airports across the country. >> and then we have another manager on duty. >> reporter: cnbc's phil lebeau was at delta headquarters in atlanta. >> all together sa! will be responsible for delta cancelling more than 2,500 flights and forcing 75,000 passengers to rebook their flights. >> i think we'll be able to operate through most of the rest of the impact once we get past early morning wednesday. >> reporter: meanwhile, amtrak's northeast corridor remains shut down. new york's grand central station

empty. subways shut down up and down the east coast as sandy's travel impact extends both near and far. we checked with orbitz.com. they tell us hotel bookings have soared as a result of this storm and in new york hotel bookings up 14% in just one week, d.c. up 24%, and philly up 50% all because of sandy. matt, back to you. >> all right. tomjf costello at reagan nation, thanks very much. kate meks maxwell is editor-in-chief of u-8 jetsetter.com. best advice when you need to rebook a flight? >> 14,000 flight cancellations so be patient. it will take a while for everyone to be moving again >> when are you entitled to a full refund? >> if your flight has been delayed by at least two hours or cancelled. >> have most airlines now waived the rebooking fees? >> they have, yes. >> let's say you have booked a flight or a hotel through one of

the travel websites like expedia or orbitz. do you go back through the website, or do you call the airlines directly? >> go back to the website, expedia, orbitz, travelocity. >> for people stuck at airports, will airlines pay for your hotel because a flight was cancelled due to a force of nature? >> unfortunately they won't. they are not obliged to pay for weather-related cancellations. however, if you're traveling internationally on an international carrier, they will pay for your hotel. >> which means you're the traveler, you've got to pay for the hotel. what's the best way to negotiate the best price for a rate, especially if you're going to be stuck for a couple of days? >> at the moment there are things called distress rates that hotels offer, particularly hotels around the airport. having said that you might find a cheaper rate just by going online and shopping around. >> if you're trying to monitor the status of upcoming flights, find out when things are back online, what's the best way to check that? >> check the airline's websites,

but i really recommend going on twitter, airlines, hotels as well, tend to update more often on twitter. >> kate maxwell, always good information. thank you very much. >> thanks very much. >> appreciate t.8:47, back with much more on sandy's aftermath on the east coast, but first this is "today" on nbc. [ earnest ] out of the blue one day,

we were told to build a 30-foot stage. gathered the guys and we built that 30-foot stage, not knowing what it was for. just days later, all three shifts were told to assemble in the warehouse. a group of people walked out on that stage and told us that the plant is now closed and all of you are fired... i looked both ways, i looked at the crowd, and...we all just lost our jobs. we don't have an income. mitt romney made over 100 million dollars

by shutting down our plant and devastated our lives. turns out that when we built that stage, it was like building my own coffin, and it just made me sick. [ male announcer ] priorities usa action is responsible for the content of this advertising. back now with more of our storm coverage, and we're just beginning to see the full extent of the damage, but when all is said and done, it could be one of the costliest natural disasters in u.s. history, so what should you do if your home is damaged? robert hartwig is the president of the insurance information institute. to you. >> good morning. >> first thing to know, if you have homeowners insurance, that doesn't necessarily mean it covers flooding? >> that's right. your typical homeowners insurance policy does not cover flooding. most people who live in the most flood-prone areas will have a policy through the national flood insurance program. >> needless to say, if you have damage, it's too late to call

your insurance company now and try to get that coverage. >> well, yes, it's after the fact. what we're going to want to do inspect your property this morning. go out and stake a look. if you've got damage, document it. take photographs and then call your agent or insurance company right away, and the claim process will begin. >> you say call the appointment to get an adjustor to come out. how soon is it reasonable to expect an adjustor to be able to come out and inspect the premises? >> all the major insurers have inspectors marshalled into the area. they will be moving into the affected areas today and throughout the rest of the week. >> after you speak to the adjustor, the next tip is get a trusted contractor. that's surprising. it's not the insurance company that finds the contractor. have you to do it? >> that's right. you can work with a contractor you have familiarity with, your neighbors have used, have you used, go with someone you trust. may need an estimate or two but use that contractor you've used in the past. >> how do you know if your insurance is goingywn to be ablo cover all of the damage? >> well, wind damage from hurricanes is covered by homeowners insurance, and

fortunately we don't see many homes that are completely destroyed here, and people should have ample coverage for that. if you're in a flood-prone area, in coastal new jersey, you should have the flood policy in place. >> hopefully they will find out this morning indeed they do. thank you for the information this morning. thank you. >> we are back with much more, but first this is "today" on neighbors.

nbc. viewers have been great about sending us some images of the storm over the last 24 to 36 hours. want to go through a couple more of those. here in atlantic city, new jersey, already told you the story, how the flooding was severe there, going from the ocean to the bay in many places. >> yeah. in atlantic city today they are waking up to streets that look like the beach, and as we continue to look through some of the pictures that we've been seeing. a lot from atlantic city, appears to be the boardwalk and huge swaths of that are now in the ocean. >> we spoke to the mayor of atlantic city who said obviously it's going to take weeks to get that city back on track. may not be a hurricane anymore, but it's going to be impacting us for weeks to come. >> we'll see you after a check of your local news. >> could potentially have fatal consequences. >> and our hearts and our prayers go to them. >> this is a massive storm. hurricane force winds extend some 175 miles in every direction. >> it's come north and now

hooked off to the left. we have never seen that. >> up and down the jersey shore, i gather we are the target, the bullseye at this point. >> fema is here on the ground working with us here at the rock. >> dramatic rescue at sea today. >> first survivors coming out of the raft. >> the pictures here are worth a,000 words. >> hurricane sandy has been waging a war. the dune has been destroyed. the ocean is now rushing in. >> this crane is now dangerously dangling over the street. >> the island of manhattan all but shut off. no way in. no way out. >> long beach is flooding. that flooding is expected to get worse. >> we lost a transformer. everybody is okay. we're fine. >> you can see that the fire is just burning up on that front lawn. that many serious flooding. they shot down the highway because it was completely submerged. stay put. stay at home. every street, you don't know what you're going to find >> >> look at these waves out

here. look at that surf. 13,000 volts of electricity. nothing to play with. >> whoa, whoa! i think it's time to go. >> much of manhattan, many of the neighborhoods in lower manhattan dark at this hour. >> trying to get the patients, 2156 them out of nyu langone medical center. on the backup generator failed. >> ocean water spilling over. >> lived down here all our lives, you know what i mean, we like it down here. it's a shame that stuff like this happens. 8:56 is your time now. you are looking live from chopper 4 at route 198 an route 32 in laurel. you can see high water there from the flooding from hurricane sandy. there is going to be a massive clean up effort there and road closures as well. we have seen drivers trying to

drive-through high water. not a good idea. you don't want to get stranded out there in dangerous conditions. chopper 4 over 198 and route 32 in laurel which saw some of the worst of the storm in our area. >> let's check in with tom kierein with a look at the forecast. >> those are the shots live this morning showing flooding there. anywhere from six to eight inches of rain to the north and east of the metro area. here is how we are looking for the rest of the day, passing showers, the wind dying down and finally drying out wednesday into the weekend. >> thank you. we'll t anncr: seven-hundred-thousand jobs. that's what the plan george allen supports... would cost our economy. newspapers called it "economically destructive." like allen's votes to give tax breaks to companies... that ship jobs overseas, his economic plan would... help big corporations, devastating the middle class. allen even voted against tax breaks for small businesses. virginia can't afford to go back to george allen.

the democratic senatorial campaign committee... is responsible for the content of this advertising. when we think no one is looking. is what we do... mitt romney: believe that they are victims. anncr: mitt romney thought no one was looking when... he attacked forty-seven percent of americans. his companies shipped jobs overseas. his plan cuts millionaires' taxes, but raises yours. he'll voucherize medicare... and make catastrophic cuts to education. so remember what romney said... and what his plan would do. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message.

all right. thanks so much. we are having problems with danella's audio.

back now with more of "today" on this tuesday morning, october 30th, 2012. you're looking at some of the images of wrath of sandy, a massive storm that started as a hurricane and has hammered the northeast and new england, major flooding. a lot of wind damage, and massivpower outages that could take days or longer to restore. good morning, everyone. i'm savannah guthrie alongside matt lauer. just talking in the last half hour how the sun came out. what a difference 20 minutes makes in midtown manhattan. >> two minutes ago we had a major downpour behind us, the wind picked up considerably, one of our cameras blew over, but if

you look at the satellite image of the aftermath of sandy which is now just a mass of clouds and rain you see we for the next day or two, we'll be dealing with these kind of stray gusts of wind and rainstorms, so this is something i heard one forecaster say we'll deal with the high winds and the gusts of winds through tomorrow night into thursday, but, again, it did just get dark here, and we had a lot of rain over the last couple of minutes. >> tide still coming in, flo flooding, storm surge still a problem. >> the death toll from this storm has risen to 17 people from seven different states n.queens just outside new york city, dozens of homes have been lost in an overnight fire. it is still burning this morning. we'll have the latest on that straight ahead. >> and a lot of people are asking us questions. they want to know what's going on. we'll be answering them a little bit later. if you want to send us a question, tweet it to us and use the #sandytoday. want to check in with al at his post in point pleasant beach, new jersey. this is close to the point where

sandy officially made landfall last night. al, good morning again. >> well, good morning, guys. and as you look down, there's atlantic beach, the atlantic ocean, and there's dunes there. i was standing on those dunes. they came down about 8:00, and the ocean came rushing in, and you see the aftermath. sand as far as you can see. flooding, too, flooding down the block here. it's a real mess, a real mess here. let's look and show you what we have as far as the latest on sandy. it's 90 miles west of philadelphia. 65-mile-per-hour winds moving west-northwest at 15 miles per hour. the wind gusts, again, a big problem. 86 in parts of massachusetts. 90-mile-per-hour wind gusts in islip yesterday. annapolis, 90 miles per hour. winds today. we have damagin winds from bangor, maine as far west as

michigan, as far south as atlanta. wind gusts up to 65 miles per hour. look at what we are going to deal with over the next 24 to 36 hours. detroit, gusts of 48 miles per hour. new york city, 38 miles per hour. washington, 32. by wednesday, they die down. you could say gusty in the northeast and back as far as detroit about 22 miles per hour. highs, water rises reported. in brooklyn, up to 12 1/2 feet. the battery, where we have seen so much damage, almost ten feet of water. we had a record setting wave height of 32 1/2 feet. the rainfall was tremendous south of the city, upwards of a food of rain. that's going to continue and the rain will finally start to die down. we eem pick up more rain in new england, two to three inches of rain. some areas, as much as five. a blizzard going on in the

mountains of west virginia and western virginia. we are looking for another one to two feet of snow. this thing has been a monster and we are going to continue to deal with it for at least another 24 hours. savannah? >>as earned the title storm of the century. al, thank you. now to the historic flooding in lower manhattan. enmorales is in battery park city this morning. talie, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning again to you, savannah. the worst may be over. it is a new day, but clearly the aftermath of sandy will be with us for a while. as you mentioned, flooding still a major concern, particularly in coastal new jersey as well as coastal connecticut as well, where you heard the governor speaking about the situation there. now, millions are without power all up and down the eastern seaboard, and we could be without power for at least up to a week, if not longer than that. as you mentioned, this is being called the storm of the century, and clearly sandy has lived up to the hype.

waves pounded the new jersey coastline, destroying parts of atlantic city's historic boardwalk. >> this storm has everyone has been saying it's not like any storm we've ever seen before. >> reporter: sparks flew from a con-edison explosion in manhattan, and snow fell in western virginia and tennessee, all scenes from super storm sandy also known as frankenstrom or the storm of the century. >> this water is swallowing this neighborhood. >> reporter: it was downgraded late monday to a post-tropical cyclone, but when it hit land at around 8:00 p.m., with winds of up to 90 miles per hour, no one was spared its wrath. >> now we're seeing hurricane force wind gusts, and this is really pushing the atlantic on to the beaches here in north jersey. >> reporter: millions of people in more than half a dozen states experienced devastating flooding, and over 7 million homes lost power. raging fires spread across the

tri-state area. in lower manhattan, the lights went out in the city that never sleeps. the power outage caused evacuations of some of the city's most vulnerable. over 200 patients were carried down stairs and out of nyu's langone medical center, including babies in critical care. a building was ripped apart, left exposed to the storm, and a construction crane hung by threads 80 stories above the ground. >> unless you own a submarine, there is no way you're getting out of new york city. >> reporter: and there is no getting in. >> what looks like a river is actually the fdr drive. >> reporter: water gushed through the city, covering everything from ground zero to the brooklyn waterfront and the new jersey p.a.t.h. train. the mta chairman spoke to the historic damage saying the new york city subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night. >> we need to keep the roads

clear. do not drive. let me repeat that. please, do not drive. >> reporter: as day breaks, the recovery effort begins, but the extent of the damage from this deadly storm remains to be seen. here in the financial center of new york as well as the world's financial center, the new york stock exchange will remain closed for a second day. as you heard, bridges and tunnels, some of the major bridges and tunnels here in new york remain closed as well, except for the lincoln tunnel which is the only access point really into the city, major access point into the city, i should correct myself there, matt, and also important to note that it's still rough going around -- in and around so if you can, stay home. probably advisable to do so as well. matt? >> good advice. natalie morales in lower manhattan, thanks very much. >> to our east on new york's long island, flooding and wind damage also widespread and residents of long beach are being told not to drink their tap water this morning.

nbc's mara schiavocampo is there. mara, good morning. >> reporter: matt, good morning. you know, the rain has stopped, but we are still getting pounded by very high winds. that's actually why i'm wearing these glasses because we're getting blasted from the sand coming in from the beach. yesterday during high tide this ocean moved through the town like the colorado river. it was raging. one resident said that it had a fury, and what it did was caused a tremendous amount of flooding, and when it receded, this is what it left behind. want to show you what it left behind. a plow came back to create access for vehicles and left this mound of sand that was left behind the water that came in. this is a city street. right now it's totally and completely a beach, and it's like this for blocks and blocks inland. i want to show you some of the damage here to property. you can see that when that water came rushing through town, it caused a tremendous amount of damage, at least up to one story. all of these vehicles that you're seeing, they weren't parked here. they floated here. they were brought here by the force of that water, and it's

just reduced these garages to beams and pieces of splintered wood. this really highlights the major concern that officials here and the reason that they set up a mandatory evacuation for this area, because this area in particular was getting storm surge, not just from the ocean on one side, but also from the bay, so there are reports of considerable flooding all over town, and also of power outages. approximately 850,000 homes without power right now, and the power authority is warning that it could be up to ten days bere that comes back. the other concern, especially with these winds still as high as they are, we're now in high tide again, and we can see, you know, the beach is not very far. it's about three blocks away. we can see that water churning and still very, very active and the concern is though it's receded for now, there could be a second wave of flooding, if you will, and could exacerbate the problem here for people who are trying to clean up. we have also seen some damage from these high winds, so it wasn't just the flooding.

we have seen roofs peeled back, some damage to roofs and windows, furniture strewn about and the like. a lot of cleanup here in manhattan. >> mara schiavocampo on long beach in long island. talk about people being without power for seven or ten days. we're entering november here, and it gets cold at night in this part of the country. those people will have issues over the next week or so. >> no question about it. we'll have more of our coverage on sandy in a moment. first some other news headlines to get to. we've got tamron hall over the news desk for natalie. good morning. >> good morning. sandy's sting is being felt on the campaign trail as well this morning as analysts fear that the extreme weather could disrup voting in key swing stes, including virginia and ohio. no u.s. presidential election has ever been delayed or cancelled in our nation's history, but congress has the authority to do so. there's also been concern that the storm could delay friday's release of october unemployment numbers. the last jobs report before the election. as of this morning the labor department says it does intend

to have those numbers available friday. meantime, both president obama and mitt romney have put their campaign trips on hold because of the storm and the need to deal with this aftermath. a deadly school bus accident in northern kentucky monday afternoon, two pre-schoolers were killed when their bus overturned and slammed into a tree. four other children were taken to local hospitals. the bus driver escaped without being harm. the cause of this crash is still under investigation. a shuffle for apple executives after some embarrassing software glitches and retail staff cuts. software chief scott forestall will be leaving next year. the reason, reported lit glitches in apple maps which gave users some faulty directions. a new study out today in "atlantic journal" shows while mammograms provide a life-saving diagnostic tool in the fight against breast cancer, they also cause doctors to treat some women unnecessarily.

the british panel found that for every life saved, three women are overdiagnosed, treated for cancer that would never have threatened their lives. the u.s. geological survey says a magnitude 6.2 earthquake off the west coast of canada last night was a strong aftershock of the more powerful 7.7 quake that struck the same area saturday night. there have been nearly 80 aftershocks registered in the area off british columa. no reports of any significant damage. a new report shows that all of those extra fees you pay to fly really do add up. in 2011 airlines made $32.5 billion in those a la cart fees charging flyrs to check a bag or board early. that by the way, is an 11% increase from the previous year. the retired space shuttle "endeavour" opens to the public today in los angeles. visitors can now see the 122-foot long orbiter for themselves after it went cross-country, piggybacked

across the country, 11-mile journey through the streets of l.a. as well. "endeavour" spent a total of 296 days in space and circled the earth more than 4,600 times. can you see it for yourself on the next family vacation. it is now 12 minutes past hour. back to matt and savannah. something fun to think about. >> yeah. >> that would be an awesome family vacay. >> a that circling around the earth was easier than getting it through the streets of los angeles, a tough trip, really was. back to lul the streets. let's go to new jersey where al is standing by. >> hey, when you see the sand, this isn't just a veneer of sand, this goes down about six inches deep. i mean it is a lot of -- you can imagine the effort it's going to take to get all of this off the streets. it's just really mind boggling to think about it. you get a sense of the power of water. let's show you what we have going on today.

you can see on the u.s. satellite radar, you can see the swirl that still is sandy in the northeast. but, if you look to the northwest, there's a lot going on there, too. big storm coming on shore. it is bringing a lot of rain to the pacific northwest. one to two inches in some areas, up to three inches and mountain snows. the southwest, plenty of sunshine. sunny and warm through the gulf coast. windy conditions extend down to central georgia. the effects of sandy still being felt. >> sandy winding down, drawing in cold air, changing the rain to snow in parts of the viewing area. it's raining hard out of the mountains. local to washington, the areas of pink and white are areas of wet snow that's coming down. we could see a lot of the area having a period of wet snow in the next couple hours. the winds will diminish this

afternoon. the peak g >> that's your latest weather. matt? >> all right, al. thank you very much. coming up, something that a lot of children may be thinking about in the wake of hurricane sandy. what's to come of halloween? and if there isn't going to be one, how do you talk to your kids about it. that's right after this.

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well, as the storm slowly runs its could, a lot of kids on the east coast have one question what. will happen to halloween. "today" contributor elizabeth mayhew is a lifestyle expert. good morning to you. >> boo-hoo. >> talk about boo-hoo. presumably many, many events

will be cancelled. >> actually this ironically happened last year, too. there was a big snow storm, and most of halloween was cancelled so the big question is mother of the obviously you're not going to send your kids into a dark neighborhood. that is -- that is the real trick, so you need to check with your town. you need to follow the local news to see what's going on. most malls are closed. even other places that sometimes absorb the trick-or-treating, a lot of them are shut down. >> it's the day before. >> rate. >> at what point do you tell your kids doesn't look like we'll have trick-or-treating this year. >> i think it's good to have a plan "b." having something to substitute and make it fun. a lot of kids are very happy because they have missed two days of school so there is some recompense in that. there is a plan "b," that this is a possibility and maybe can you make it up. a lot of the big parties are going to be cancelled. some of the smaller parties might be happening, so maybe gang together with friends, and there's certainly things that you can do as a community to come together and make it fun for kids. >> this is a time to get

creative with the kids which is where you come in. so you have an idea called chunk and treat. what do you mean by that? >> this is a big trend. i already know some people in new jersey who have already organized this whether it's a cul-de-sac or neighborhood, people come together and bring their cars out provided you can drive. you bring the cars together, you put candy in the trunk and kids trunk or treat. >> what about indoors, i'm sure you could have the child dress up in his or her costume. >> absolutely. invite some kids, friends over, have them dress up. i like to do a safe jer hunt so just follow what you would maybe do for an easter egg hunt and hide the candy around and let them go and fine it. alot is getting the candy and sort it. my brothers and sisters and i used to like that. >> by sort it you mean fight over it. and you have a craft idea. what happened to the milk carton and cereal idea. >> for those of us stuck in the

house eating all the halloween candy, glue it, have gun, decorate it, whatever it might be. you clean it out, and start gluing away. >> gluing away. >> that means you can probably still eat the wrapped candy but not the candy corns. >> like a gingerbread house but doing it with all y candy. again, something fun to do, and if you're indoors and have a lot of time and there's no electricity, nothing like candy, cereal box and some glue to get you going. >> one thing a lot of people have right now is time. elizabeth mayhew, thank you. we're back with more coverage of the storm, but first these messages. [ male announcer ] when you're sick, seems everyone and their brother has a home remedy to try. but walgreens knows that you need advice from an expert. that's why our pharmacists are trained to know just what you should take for your symptoms. they're here and ready to help before you try anything... too crazy. now walgreens pharmacists welcome

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president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message. good morning, everyone. metro announced it will resume rail and bus service at 2:00 this afternoon. we are still seeing problems on the roads, though. danella? >> good news. the bay bridge reopened. local roads seeing flooding. if you see flooding avoid it. good morning, tom. >> rain this morning. don't be surprised if you see snow. highs reaching the upper 40s.

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yeah. what was a rain event in most parts along the east coast and some states up into new england was a snow event, as al has been telling us, over the last day or so in parts of westok virginia, and the mountains of north carolina, that was an image i believe from the area near snowshoe, west virginia. that's a ski resort that i've been to on a couple of occasions. it's beautiful there, and they don't normally get snow this early, at least not in this amount. a good start to the ski season, but, again, making life a little more difficult for people in that area. we'll check in on that situation there in just a couple of

minutes. i'm matt lauer alongside savannah guthrie. high rain, heavy winds and flooding still a threat from the storm that knocked out power to millions of people along the east coast. >> that presents a problem for many, many families. how to feed everybody as you wait for the lights to come back on, especially if you're worried about the food in your fridge and how long it may last. >> let's go down to anne thompson in lower manhattan. when we checked in with her yesterday, the discussion was whether the huddon river and the harbor water would come up over the promenade. well guess what? it certainly did, and some other damage behind you there, anne. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, matt. you know, high winds are just one of the problems that manhattanites are dealing with this morning. let me show you what they are waking up to here in battery park this. tree fell over last night as wind gusts hit very high speeds here. hurricane wind gusts here in battery park. that's just one problem and another big problem here in lower manhattan is the loss of power. i was driving here from my

apartment and below 28th street there is not a light on. con-ed turned off the power about 7:00 last night in lower manhattan to protect its equipment, and to protect that equipment from the storm surge that came up fast and furious here last night. in fact, it set a new record almost 14 feet high. and we got trapped down here last night because of the storm surge. when we finally got done about 9:00, we tried to go back to our apartments and found we couldn't get out of battery park city because everything was flooded. it took three hours for the water to recede enough so that we could drive through some very deep water with our suvs. now, this morning i can tell you driving here, you see debris all over manhattan. there are branches down, trees down, scaffolding is down. it's a real mess, and because of that mayor bloomberg is again urging people to stay inside, stay home, don't go outside because it is not safe. and even if you want to go outside, i mean, i'm telling

you, you can't get around. mass transit closed for the second straight day. the subways, seven stations under the east river are flooded. they hope to have bus service back tomorrow, but it looks like subways and trains will take a lot longer because the cleanup here is going to be quite extensive. matt. >> anne thompson(n >> there were coastal rescues in fairfield, connecticut by the national guard, and also fires in greenwich, connecticut, that burned out of control all year long destroying multi-million

dollar homes. fire fighters could not reach the homes because the floodwaters were so high. also, fires in old saybrook, and those were raging since 9:00 p.m. last night. still raging last time we checked. couldn't get to them because of all of the floodwaters. at one point last night emergency officials sent out a tweet saying that if you were trapped in your homes, hang a wheat sheet out of your window or on your house some way so we know where you are. very reminiscent of what we saw in katrina. the good news is the vast majority of people who were told to evacuate did evacuate so you didn't have as many trapped people, as you might have expected, had they not done so. two people dead and one man who is still believed to be missing. savannah? >> katy tur in stonington, connecticut this morning. thank you. >> let's go to al roker on point pleasant beach along the jersey shore. al, what's the weather like there, first of all? >> it's still windy, matt, and we're getting bands of rain. let me show you something down

philadelphia avenue. you see there's a lot of flooding, and folks walking through that standing water. do not do that. because you don't know what's in there. from a biohazard standpoint, from a debris standpoint, from live wires. there was a woman electrocuted in new york city walking through a puddle. do not do that. so -- but, again, we are talking about the remnants of sandy still hanging around for at least another 24 to 36 hour. as we take a look at the "today" map, in the northeast the domin. in the pacific northwest, another storm there. a lot of heavy rain. windy conditions to the west to the great lakes. tomorrow, you can expect to see more heavy rains from the northwest spreading down into northern california. more rain hanging around the northeast and into the eastern great lakes and mountain snows continue in west virginia and western virginia. sunny and warm from the gulf coast, texas into the southwest.

that's what's going on around the country. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> good morning. i'm tom kierein. storm team 4 radar showing wet snow flakes mixing in with the rain. cold air is getting drawn in as it's spinning. patches of white and we are getting a few areas of wet snow. rain falling and the creeks and streams are at flood stage and higher throughout much of the region. >> matt, point pleasant beach is in ocean county and an ocean county official just rode through doing an youassessment. the dunes are knocked down in a dozen different places and the other end of the inlet the flooding is extensive. scenes like this being repeated up and down the jersey shore. back to you. >> i think you told us yesterday, al, that the dunes

had been created to protect against storms, and now they have to go through the whole process again. >> exactly. there was a big nor'easter in 1992, and so they built these dunes as a protective barrier. really for just about 30 years they have stood up against what mother nature and the atlantic has thrown at it. sandy proved to be too much. >> al roker, appreciate it very much. back with more on the storm and the damage left behind right after this. ally bank. why they have a raise your rate cd. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

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our lifestyle expert is here with us. good morning, good to see you. >> good to see you, too. >> one of the things you wished you stocked your pantry properly, but nonetheless always a chance to learn something new. >> of course. >> you're starting out with something interesting. having beans on the ready in the house. >> you don't have to have peanut butter and jelly if you don't want to. if you have a well-stocked pantry you can eat decently. keep beans in the house, canned beans, dry beans, olive oils, ven gar and look in your pantry, fridge, any herbs left, carrots, celery and tuna is a great staple. >> things with a long shelf life. >> so once they are in they are good for a while. >> you can make a couple of things with this starting with a tuna and bean salad. >> okay. which is very easy. use the canned tuna. i like them in olive oil, whatever you can find and whatever you have in your pantry and any kind of beans, white beans, plaque beans, dump them all, different kinds of beans and this is healthy. >> we were just laughing, but seriously, a lot of kids saying can we eat the ice cream before

it melts because that's the only thing that's there. >> and then you've got some scallions, if you've got them or onions, red onions are nice, celery. >> and if you don't have these in your refrigerator or pantry forgo and still do the tuna and bean combo. >> mix it up, jarred peppers, what have you and then you can season it. i like cayenne, need like to gi a kick. >> doing oil and vinegar. >> i like lemon a lot because it adds brightness so that's what you can use. stir it up and mix it up. serve that on crackers or bread. >> great. >> or just as a salad on a bed of lettuce or bed of spinach, whatever you have. i think the kids eat it, too. my kids like this. >> you don't have an oven or microwave, they will eat anything. yummy and flavorful, and filling on top of that. okay. you also have a different salad, zucchini and carrots. >> a lot of zucchini in the

market, i like this presentation, a fun way to do it. cutting them into ribbons, just a prettier way to approach it. you kid the kids busy in the kitchen, get a peeler and dress it in the same way, a little olive oil and vinegar or olive oil and lem on, add different things. keep nuts in the huts house, things in your pantry, and if you keep it stocked you'll always have a good meal. >> like both of these recipes because we were warned earlier there could be power outages. can you make this before in anticipation of the storm and have it there on the ready to feed the kids. >> and go into sandwiches tomorrow, too, if you have anything left over. use up what you have in your pantry and keep things on stock and you'll never go hungry again. >> thank you, suzanne. great pleasure having you on. we'll be back with more coverage of sandy right after this. alright let's break it down.

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delicious. but say i press a few out flat... add some beef sloppy joe sauce... and cheese fold it all up and boom! i just made an unbeatable unsloppy joe pillsbury grands bcuits. let the making begin. well, the impact of sandy extends well beyond the united states with so many flight cancellations, thousands of tourists are now trapped overseas. nbc's michelle kosinski is in london with that part of the story. michelle, good morning to you. >> reporter: hi, savannah. right now you might say the situation is improving some with more u.s. airports now opening, but it's worse in others.

heathrow, for example, has more flight cancellations today than yesterday. it's left now with thousands of americans stranded all over the world. thousands of others stuck in the u.s. >> super storm sandy strikes causing death and damage. >> reporter: sand set big news story here, too. >> states of emergency. >> a major disaster is declared in new york. >> reporter: and affecting many. >> kennedy is cancelled or closed so we're here for four more days. >> reporter: from airport around the world, london, frankfurt, paris, no way into new york or many other u.s. cities. jeff and his wife need to get from the city of lights to a place in connecticut that may or may not have power once they land. >> we need to get a place to stay here in paris, and a little indecision because they don't know how long it's going to be before airports open. >> reporter: thinking they might be able to get home via montreal this. group is planning on camping for

an entire day at heathrow trying to make it to los angeles. the next available flight for some may not be for a week forcing americans to stick it out through the mounting expense and uncertain. >> we're fortunate that we're able to afford to do that. feel so bad when i'm watching the news. >> convenienced and a little bit of expense. the new england patriots who played in london barely made it out on a charter flight and made it back to boston on monday. some others got stuck. the gargantuan hurricane sandy and with a phenomenon almost unheard of in these parts had reverberations in european stock markets, as wall street closed and sandbagged markets here lost some volume. investors that fund insurance specialists lloyds of london pulled back, worried how much cleanup from this monster storm could ultimately cost. new york and land-in are connected by commerce of all

kinds. more than 7,000 people a day on average. more than 2.5 million last year, fly between jfk and heathrow. sandy now leaving people stuck on both sides of that roiling ocean. americans now stranded across the globe. people here are watching those pictures in horror and what a storm like this can do, and for those stranded some airlines are not helping with the tab for hotels, and the question now is how soon they will be able to get back to the u.s. because things like this that have snowballing effect. some here in london are being told their next flight might not be until saturday or sunday. they are trying to fly to other cities like chicago to get to new york. savannah. >> could be a while. michelle kosinski in london, thank you. we're back in a moment. this is "today" on nbc. [ earnest ] out of the blue one day, we were told to build a 30-foot stage. gathered the guys and we built that 30-foot stage, not knowing what it was for.

just days later, all three shifts were told to assemble in the warehouse. a group of people walked out on that stage and told us that the plant is now closed and all of you are fired... i looked both ways, i looked at the crowd, and...we all just lost our jobs. we don't have an income. mitt romney made over 100 million dollars by shutting down our plant and devastated our lives. turns out that when we built that stage, it was like building my own coffin, and it just made me sick. [ male announcer ] priorities usa action is responsible for the content of this advertising.

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that sandy made that that dramatic turn to the northeast was another storm moving in from the west, and it's brought snow, a lot of it, to parts of the appalachian mountains. the weather channel's janelle klein is in snowshoe, west virginia with more from there. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, matt, as hurricane sandy continues to batter the east coast, it's having a very different effect here in west virginia. lots of snow, as you said. in fact, almost two feet of snow in some parts of west virginia, the governor declaring a state of emergency here with travel very, very difficult this morning. thousands of people without power. many counties in a state of emergency because of that power loss, and many travelers stranded on the road. the plows are out this morning trying to clear those highways. national guard troops are also on standby trying to help people stranded on the roads, and state agencies have set up shelters trying to help people who have been out and have no place to go, and yet they do expect this storm will get better. as you can see, the snow continues to fall here, and the

storm does continue. we expect it will intensify before the day is over and get a lot worse before the day is over. >> janel klein in snowshoe, west virginia. thank you very much. want to bring up some pictures of manhattan. the fdr drive is the main thoroughfare along the east side of manhattan, right along the east river. we don't have major thoroughfares in the middle of the island, just streets and avenues. this is like a highway, and that is what it looked like in the middle of last night as the east river and the fdr drive were one. >> more like a river than a highway, and on the west side a similar story. saw the images from battery park city which is the southwestern tip of manhattan as the water spilled over and i think exceeded even the expectations, the worst forecast for what the storm surge should be. about 8:30 or so, a lot of us downtown lost our power. con-ed, the local utility, doing so in an abundance of caution to prevent further damage, and it may be days, perhaps weeks for some across the northeast to get their power back.

>> i should mention one thing about the fdr, it basically floods when it drizzles here but you can imagine what it's like in a storm like sandy. anyway, images like that, you're going to be seeing them over the next couple of days as we continue to clean up from a storm that had an enormous impact on our region. >> and if you want to send some pictures,y with a anxious to show them on the air. tweet them to us. use the #sandytoday. we're going to have a lot more coverage of this powerful storm that's disrupting life across the northeast today after a check of your local news.

9:57 is the time nou on this tuesday october 30th, 2012. rail and bus service will resume at 2:00 this afternoon. we are still seeing problems on the roads. let's check in with danella sealock with the traffic. hi. >> local roads seeing problems in the district if you are traveling westbound h street at 7:00. you are going to see low

hanging -- that is blocked. in fairfax county, roads closed. interstates look good. frederick county in maryland, over 40 roads closed. tom, what's going on there? >> yesterday, sandy was a hurricane, today a snowicane. it's changing the rain to snow. as we look at storm team 4 radar, the areas in pink and white, wet snow flakes melting on the surface. we'll have occasional wet snow flakes in and out this morning. all ending by this afternoon and drying out wednesday into the weekend. >> thank you. >> t[ minto ] you know, those ads saying mitt romney

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our children will be left with. i voted for president obama last time, but we just can't afford four more years. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

zoob seven million people are without power. if you are out west trying to fly east, you really have to call ahead. our airports are basically closed down. the flights are incredibly delayed. more than 6,000 flights have been canceled today. a total of 15,000 in all as a result of this storm. >> and hundreds of thousands of those power outages are right here in new york city. lower manhattan hit by a record storm surge of more than 13 feet. it has flooded streets and the ground zero construction site. just look at that dramatic photo taken there overnight. >> some subway station and tunnels or stations and tunnels are flooded as well. transit officials say the system, "has never faced a

disaster as devastating as this." during the height of the storm, the island of manhattan seemed like it had been virtually cut off, with almost all of the major bridges and tunnels shut down. we've got it covered this morning. let's get the latest from natalie morales. she's in lower manhattan, battery park city. natalie, good morning. >> good morning to you, matt. it is a new day, and the worst of it may be over, but it is clear the aftermath of sandy, the devastation will be with us for a while. as you mentioned, main concern obviously is still flooding. president obama has declared new jersey and parts of new york major disaster areas. millions here are still without power up and along the eastern seaboard. we could be without power for up to a week, even more, and sandy, as you have heard, is being called the storm of the century. clearly, it is living up to its hype. >> reporter: waves pounded the new jersey coastline destroying parts of atlantic city's

historic boardwalk. >> this storm as everyone has been saying is not like any storm we've ever seen before. >> reporter: sparks flew from a con-edison explosion in manhattan, and snow fell in western wv virginia and tennessee. all scenes from super storm sandy, also known as frankenstorm, or the storm of the century. >> this water following this neighborhood. >> reporter: it was downgraded late monday to a post tropical cyclone, but it weather it hit land at 8:00 p.m. with winds of up to 90 miles per hour no one was spared its wrath. sfoo we're seeing hurricane force wind gusts, and this is really pushing the atlantic on to the beaches here in north jersey. >> reporter: millions of people and more than a half dozen states experienced devastating flooding and over seven million homes lost power. raging fires spread across the tristate area. in lower manhattan the lights went out in the city that never sleeps. the power outage caused

evacuations of some of the city's most vulnerable. over 200 patients were carried downstairs and out of nyu's lango medical center, including babies in critical care. a building was ripped apart left exposed to the storm and a construction crane hung by threads 80 stories above the ground. >> unless you own a submarine, there is no way you are getting out of new york city. >> reporter: and there is no getting in. >> what looks like a river is actually the fdr drive. >> reporter: water gushed through the city covering everything from ground zero to the brooklyn waterfront and the new jersey pass train. the mpa chairman spoke to the historic damage saying the new york city subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night. >> we need to keep the roads clear. do not drive. let me repeat that. please do not drive. >> reporter: as day breaks, the

recovery effort begins, but the extent of the damage from this deadly storm remains to be seen. >> here in the financial centers down in lower manhattan in new york, the new york stock exchange, once again, will remain closed for a second day. this is only the second time in its history since 1888 that it has remained closed due to weather. also, getting in and around the city, as you can imagine, very difficult. all the major bridges and tunnels, except for the lincoln tunnel, remain closed today, and the mayor is urging new yorkers and people once again in the area if they don't have to be out and about, that they shouldn't be out and about, because once again, safety is of utmost concern again today. matt. >> all right, natalie. thank you very much. natalie mentioned that construction crane that was toppled by the high winds eight blocks north of us right here in the studio. we have the video of it happening. just happened to be captured. again, this is almost 1,000 feet above the ground. imagine what would have happened had that major portion of that

crane come crashing down to the ground. >> there we have the live picture. it remains in that precarious position. matt, i know you were out yesterday walking around. as the winds were blowing, you saw it blowing around. >> i took a walk and went right to the corner of 57th street and fifth avenue. that's as far as they would let you go. they had 57th street blocked off, but you could watch it swaying in the win and a lot of people were concerned about it, and now the question is how do they fix that? what do they do with that to dismantle it and bring that section down to the ground? >> well, they're going to take a look today, and in the short-term have evacuated the immediate area for the obvious reasons. the damage is widespread to our west in new jersey where sandy actually roared ashore. al roker is in pount pleasant beach this morning. al, good morning. what's the scene there? >> well, as you can imagine, savannah, it's a lot of devastation. back right through there, that's where the dunes were. i was standing on it yesterday. well, about 8:00 last night those dunes breached, and you

breached. you can see the result. sand as far as the eye can see. we are not talking a veneer. we are talking at least six inches of sand. you mentioned, savannah, this came on shore as a post tropical system. in a way, that's what made this so bad. with a tropical system, once it comes on shore, it loses the energy source, the ocean. post tropical doesn't depend on this. it merged with another. it's why we have such strong winds now and such a difficult time dealing with sandy. speaking of sandy, let's look at where it is. it's still hanging around about 95 miles west of philadelphia. 65 miles per hour winds moving west-northwest at 15. a lot of wind gusts. yesterday, some of the wind gusts into the 80s, 70s, some places 90-mile-per-hour wind gusts. damaging winds continue today because of the potency of sandy from bangor, maine to detroit,

to atlanta and beyond. we are talking wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour. near 70-mile-per-hour wind gusts near lake erie. as you take a look from this morning, wind gusts as high as 48 miles per hour in detroit. boston, 41 in atlantic city. it continues into the day tomorrow with wind gusts still anywhere from 15 to 35 miles per hour. the water rises, they were a mess as well. kings point new york, 7:15, another high-rise. as you look around here, you can see the devastation and it's going to continue as we move in and sandy finally dies out. matt? >> thank you very much. obviously, it was new jersey that took the direct hit from this storm. the governor oft state, chris christie is holding a news conference right now bringing reporters up to speed on the damage. we had the chance to talk to governor christie a little bit

earlier this morning. i started by asking him about the state of his state. >> we have over 2.4 million people without power across the state. we've had flooding in the new york bay areas, rareton bay. new jersey area is 59% without power. it all came from the tidal surge that came through raredon bay and new york bay, and the same thing affecting new york city, and we have a battered, battered new jersey shore that i hope to tour a little later on today, but i think the losses are going to be almost incalculable. >> i was watching reporters all afternoon and evening from long branch and point pleasant beach and atlantic city, and do you have a lot of people that you think you're going to have to go out and account for this morning? search and rescue missions to find people that you haven't heard from? >> we are in the midst of search and rescue missions in atlantic city now, matt.

we are in the midst of search and rescue missions in munacci, new jersey, where there was significant flooding from, again, the tidal surge last night. that's up in bergen county. we've done a number of rescues already in the last night and through this morning. we have search and rescue teams positioned throughout the state. they're doing that right now. unfortunately, we have had three deaths so far in new jersey from the storm. we're hoping to make sure we don't add to that total. >> you need help, obviously. i know you spoke to president obama on a couple of occasions yesterday. he has offered his help. what's the government's -- the federal government's response been like so far? >> the federal government's response has been great. i was on the phone at midnight again last night with the president personally. he has expedited the designation of new jersey as a major disaster area. i expedited that. i was on the phone with fema at 2:00 a.m. this morning to answer the questions they needed answered to get that

designation, and the president has been outstanding in this, and so the folks at fema craig and his folks have been excellent. >> i know you took exception with the handling of this situation by the mayor of atlantic city, lorenzo langeford. you were very upset that he didn't evacuate that city or all of that city and, instead, offered some people shelter in some city shelters, and you said he was a rogue mayor and said, "i don't have a feud with the guy, but i wish he would do his job." a little time has passed between those comments right now. the emotional level come down? do you still feel that way? >> the fact of the matter is i feel badly for the folks in atlantic city who listened to him and sheltered in atlantic city, and i guess my anger has turned to sympathy for those folks, and we're in the midst now to try to go in and cia them. daylight has come. we've got an urban search and rescue team with four boats and 21 state police personnel. we have federal urban search and rescue teams. they're down there as well. i feel badly for them that they've got mixed messages.

i signed an executive order declaring an emergency and ordering the evacuation of atlantic city, and for some reason the mayor gave a mixed message, but my focus right now is on the people in atlantic city and we need to get them out and keep them safe. that's what we're going to do. >> finally, like so many other states, new jersey is dealing with a big financial crisis. the budget is very tight. how much of the bill for the clean-up in your state is going to have to come out of the state's coughers? can you afford it? >> we have to afford it, matt. the fact of the matter is i think we're going to get significant federal assistance on this, and the major disaster declaration last night by the president is incredibly helpful in that regard. we'll work with our federal partners on this, and, listen, if i have to make cuts in the budget for other places to make sure weigh ford this, i will do it, but it's too early to tell on that, matt, and so i don't really know. i spoke to my budget folks yesterday, and they told me if that's not something they're concerned about at the moment, and it's not something i'm concerned about at the moment. the first thing we to be concerned about is minimizing loss of life, saving the people

who need to be saved, and then we'll move from there, and new jersey, listen, you know this, matt. new jersey is a tough place. we'll recover from this, and we'll be just fine, and whatever we need to spend to get it done, we'll do what we need to do to make sure that gets done. >> that was governor chris christie earlier this morning on this program. as we mentioned, he is holding another briefing for reporters right now. some highlights from that, he said that he has national guard troops out in the state of new jersey. he says there are six shelters open. some 2.4 million people are without power in that state. that is twice the number that were without power after hurricane irene. so a serious situation in the state of new jersey. savannah. >> all right. from new jersey to connecticut, the governor there is calling the storm the worst water event in his state's history. thousands of homeowners trapped by coastal flooding. nbc's katie in connecticut this morning. katie, good morning to you. >> reporter: certainly one of the worst water events in history.

now it's going to go down as one of the worse power events. take a look at what's going on here in stonington. this tree is about 80 feet tall. i'm about 5'2", 5'3". ripped out from its roots about 5:00 last night, and thrown on to, luckily, the powerlines here, which are basically cradling this tree right now. this house was saved by those power lineses. you are seeing this seen up and down connecticut as we speak. trees that are down, taking down power lines, and damaging a number of houses. that's what is causing a lot of the outages. there was massive flooding as well last night. high tide here in stonington was around 9:30 last night, and the water got up pretty high. that's what you are seeing in all of the coastal areas. more to the west near fairfield and those areas, high tide was around midnight. there were a number of water rescues, we're told, around there. also, 40 trees down in one hour in fairfield alone, we're told, last night. a number of fires in greenwich, connecticut, and a number of fires in old saybrook, and in

greenwich a number of multimillion-dollar homes were completely destroyed because firefighters just couldn't get to them. now this is a power event though, and with over 600,000 customers without power, they'll be dealing with this for some time to come. >> all right, katie. thank you. we spoke with connecticut's governor earlier today, and i asked him if the storm lived up to his expectations of being catastrophic. >> it's pretty bad. the firefighter in easton is emblem attic of that. we have trees down every where, poles down everywhere. the amount of flooding damage was unbelievable. we have thousands of people trapped in homes at the height of the storm last night. in fact, i went on tv to tell people to stay in place because we didn't want people to try to be swimming out or walking out through high water or driving out. having said all of that, i think the connecticut folks responded pretty well. most heeded the call. most did the right thing to get out of harm's way. we had a series of fires last

night in greenwich and old saybrook. we lost a number of housing and housing units to fire and flood and wind damage. obviously, there will be a lot more assessments today. we know we have over 635,000 customers without power. we know we have water damage to at least three, if not four major sewer treatment facilities that will take some period of time to repair, so we've got a lot of work ahead of us. i want to thank the president of the united states who did a magnificent job and fema who have really done some amazing early work to get us ready, but now the hard work will start. >> and, governor, you talked about the evacuations. do you have any sense of how many people may still be stranded this morning? do you have search and rescue efforts underway? >> we do have search and rescue efforts underway. we have mobilized 850 troops. they've been deployed throughout the state. we have a number of regional teams as well as others that are

responding. they'll start to come back. you know, we're going door to door, house to house making sure people are okay, and that if they need our assistance at this point, we're making it available. we have thousands of people in shelters last night. certainly the hundreds of thousands of people obviously staying with friends or relatives elsewhere in connecticut. i'm very grateful to people of connecticut for responding. our municipal officials by and large did a magnificent job of preparatory to the storm so that handling the storm at its height was more manageable than we might have thought only because of the hard work that was done. >> connecticut governor daniel malloy with us earlier this morning. >> we'll have more in a moment. first, though, a check of other headlines. tamron hall over at the news desk. >> good morning, everyone. sandy's sting is being felt on the campaign trail as well this morning.

analysts fear that the extreme weather could disrupt voting in key swing states, including virginia and ohio. no u.s. presidential election has ever been delayed or canceled in our nation's history, but congress has the authority to do so. there's also been concern that the storm could delay friday's real esta release of october's unemployment numbers. the last before the presidential election. two nato service members were killed in the helmand province. officials say the victims were shot by a man wearing an afghan police uniform. a deadly school bus accident in northern kentucky monday afternoon. two preschoolers were killed when their bus overturned and slammed into a tree. four other children were taken to local hospitals. the bus driver escaped unharmed. the cause of the crash is under investigation. a new study out today in the lancett journal says while mammograms provide a life-saving

diagnostic tool in the fight against breast cancer, they also cause doctors to treat some women unnecessarily. a british panel found that for every life saved, three women are overdiagnosed, treated for a cancer that would never have threatened their lives. and retired space shuttle endeavour opens to the public today in los angeles. visitors can now see the 122-foot long orbiter for themselves after its cross-country piggyback ride and 11-mile journey through the streets of los angeles. endeavour spent a total of 296 days in space and circled earth more than 4,600 times. earlier is another word for earth. it's now 20 minutes after the hour. back to matt and savannah. it was earth not early, but i'm sure it was early when they circled earth. >> yes, exactly. >> as the moments passed.

thank you very much. >> we get back to al on the jersey shore. he has a check of your local forecast. hey, al. >> thanks, savannah. we just saw we saw three blocks down a front end loader going by. i spoke with county officials about a half hour ago. he said they can't imagine what they are going to need to clear the streets out. there's another high tide. they may be getting more of this on top of what they have. out west, there's a big storm going on in the pacific northwest where we are seeing heavy rain in the pacific northwest anywhere from one to three inches of rain and in the mountains, snow. it's a real mess out there as well. that's what's going on around the country, here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> around here, we continue to see sandy wind down. we have gusts up to 25 miles per hour. we'll watch that wind continue to settle throughout the day. reaching from maine to north carolina and up into michigan, the storm. look at the white.

we are snow mixing in south mountain areas. steady snow with snow to around skyline drive and higher in the mountains. for us here, showers continue throughout the day. it will be chilly with highs in the mid to upper >> that front-end loader. obviously, they're getting ready to try to start to assess the damage and maybe start the clean-up, but it's going to be a long time coming. matt. >> al roker for us in point pleasant beach, new jersey. al, thank you very much. more on sandy, but, first, this is "today" on nbc. anncr: seven-hundred-thousand jobs. that's what the plan george allen supports...

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good morning. it's 10:26 on this tuesday, october 30th. take a look at the damage left behind sandy. downed trees and power lines. flooded streets. they are looking to restore electricity to 190,000 customers in the area. rail and bus service will resume at 2:00 this afternoon on the sunday schedule. let's go to danella sealock with the traffic. >> good morning. still checking on flooded roads, downed trees. northwest beach drive is closed. also over to the parkway, it's closed between beach drive and the bridge. the good news, on the beltway,

no issues between maryland and

good morning. right now, sandy continues to spin away post tropical sigh

loan over pennsylvania drawing in cold air in many locations. the white on the radar, it switched over to wet snow flakes this morning. that may continue off and on here as we get into the afternoon. then drying out tomorrow. then[ minto ] you know,w. those ads saying mitt romney would ban all abortions and contraception seemed a bit extreme. so i looked into it. turns out, romney doesn't oppose contraception at all. in fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest, or to save a mother's life.

this issue's important to me, but i'm more concerned about the debt our children will be left with. i voted for president obama last time, but we just can't afford four more years. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. back now on a tuesday morning, 30th of october, 2012 as the northeast continues to deal with the fall-out from sandy. historic damage all along the east coast. atlantic city, new jersey just one of the cities that's under water this morning. we're going to hear from the mayor there straight ahead. another big story this morning massive overnight flooding or fire in a section of new york. >> yeah, it happened in queens, new york, and you see the images there. nearly 200 firefighters responding to the six-alarm blaze.

it destroyed between 08 and 100 homes. it's moved into pennsylvania. heavy rain and tlooding remain threats today. >> in new york city the storm surge reached a record of more than 13 feet. >> it flooded subway stations, the electrical system that powers wall street, and utility companies across the region are telling the millions who have lost power it could be a week or more before electricity is fully restored, so we want to start with jeff rossen who is here in new york city. he has been checking the damage all morning. jeff, good morning. what do you see now? well, we may have a frozen signal. we've been having a little bit of technical difficulties this morning for reasons that are clearly able to be understood because of the weather situation still here in new york. >> we mentioned a second ago atlantic city took a direct hit from this storm. there is massive flooding there. atlantic city's mayor is lorenzo langford. he joined us by phone a little earlier this morning. i began by asking him for his

assessment of post-sandy atlantic city. >> well, let me say this, as devastating as this storm was with respect to property damage, i think the glass is half full and not half empty. we've experienced a minimal loss of life and injury, and i think for that all of us ought to be thankful and send up a big mighty prayer. >> your name got in the news yesterday maybe not for reasons that you had hoped. the governor of new jersey called you out for your failure to fully evacuate the city. he had called for that evacuation, and you offered some residents of atlantic city shelter in city shelters. talk to me a little bit about the decision. what happened? >> well, first of all, let me say this. the governor is either misinformed or ill advised or simply just decided to -- that is not what happened. here we are in the throes of a major catastrophe and the governor has decided to use a

time like this to play politics. i think it's terrible that he would try to make a political situation out of something so serious. >> let me tell you what he said. he said whatever reason mayor langford urged people to stay in shelters in cities despite my admonish. he gave them comfort for some reason to stay. >> what's his source? >> i'm asking you. did it happen? is it accurate? >> i'm telling you that that is absolutely false, and the governor needs to rechallenge. those of you with journalistic integrity need to ask the governor what his source is. where did he get that information? he is dead wrong. >> he are join us a little later in the morning, and we will ask him that question. how many people did spend the night in shelters in your city, mayor? >> well, fortunately, most of our residents did heed the repeated warnings that they should flee the city. as you know, we are a barrier island, and the call did go out from the governor's office to suggest that everybody ought to flee the island, and, fortunately, most of the

residents in the city of atlantic city heeded that advice. unfortunately, as always will be the case, there will always be those who will not heed that warning and decide to stay. in life it's better to have options and not need them than to need options and not have them. we had a plan in place for those few residents who would decide at the last minute that they would not try to heed our warning and vacate the city, but would try to offer them to tough it out only to find at some other time they wanted to flee. we had that contingency plan in place. >> that was our conversation a little earlier this morning with the mayor of atlantic city, lorenzo langford. >> we were trying just a few minutes ago to get in touch with our correspondent jeff rossen who is inspecting damage. a little earlier he filed this report. >> reporter: in the east village of manhattan right now this entire area was completely under water and so the water has receded now, but look what it's left behind.

cars are literally strewn through the new york city streets. you are seeing this everywhere. these are cars that were parked along the side and literally floated into the middle. i mean, half of them have water damage, and in some cases we're told the water was up to here on these vehicles. i want to show you something else as well, bill, as we walk through here. here's another car on a main avenue that got into an accident with a con-ed car. this is a power company. the people tried to put the electricity back on. the issue now -- we just talked to con-ed. this is one of their power plants here. we said when do you think the power will be back for all of these people, and as you know, there are millions without. they said it will be days and days -- what the one worker told me, i don't even know where to start, and that's the situation because i'm looking around here. power is out everywhere. no traffic lights. i'm looking at these apartment buildings. people now with first daylight are just now beginning to wake up and see -- you can see cars are strewn all throughout. i have never seen anything like

this covering news in the city for over a decade, savannah. >> jeff rossen a little bit earlier in lower manhattan. we want to check in with al roker. he is along the new jersey shore, again, this morning. al, what's the scene there? >> reporter: yeah, well, we're looking right now at that front-end loader that's obviously trying to get some work done, get some of this sand out of here. i mean, we are probably talking literally millions of tons of sand that has to be cleared out of these streets. an ocean county worker had just moved through, and they were saying that down by the barrier islands, down to the other end, if anybody is down there, they are stuck. they can't get out. down at the other end here, there's an inlet, and that -- there's massive flooding there, so it's a real mess.

>> and that's your latest weather. savannah. >> al, thank you. what are authorities going to do about that crane that toppled over on monday during hurricane sandy? we're going to talk to a city official here in new york live right after this. living with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis means living with pain. it could also mean living with joint damage. help relieve the pain and stop the damage with humira, adalimumab. for many adults with moderate to severe ra, humira is clinically proven to help relieve pain and stop joint damage. so you can treat more than just the pain. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened.

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you are looking live at something that a lot of new yorkers are looking at this morning. they're looking up to see that damaged crane on the west side of manhattan. as you can see, it's dangling over the street. that's 57th street on the west side. that's because on monday this is what happened during hurricane sandy. it toppled over in high winds. >> scott stringer is the manhattan burrough president. he is with us here by phone. there's a lot to you about, sir, but we may as well start with the crane. number one, what do authorities plan to do about this which now, of course, it's not secure, and is there any reason to believe it was not adequately secured before this happened? the leasing company telling us it was last inspected on friday. >> we're not going to know exactly what the status of the crane was until there's a full investigation, but what you are hearing is true. the crane was inspected. there was no red flag raised, so

one can only suggest that this is just about a wind surge that toppled that crane. more importantly, what do we do now, and i think the mayor and city agencies are going to make that evaluation sometime today, whether you let the crane drop to the ground or whether you try to secure it in some way? obviously people are being very cautious and careful. i can tell you we've evacuated 16 buildings. the street has been secured. steam is off. electricity is off in the area, so if that crane were to fall, the damage would be limited. obviously, human life would not be impacted, which is the most important issue. >> mr. stringer, you have a lot of things to deal with, a lot of issues. let's talk about power. a lot of people in manhattan still without power. any idea when that might be restored? >> again, we're going throughn assessment with con-ed. after i finish with you, i'm going to be on a call with con

edison. below 39th street we have over 200,000 people without power. 600,000 people just within the city area. this is obviously something that everyone is concerned about. we need to get a timeline when power can go back on. we need to get our subway system up within the next day or so, and obviously there's a lot of work that has to be done. we have never seen a storm like this, and we are just digging out from under it, and obviously, we're still concerned about people who don't have power, who are in dangerous situations, so our police, our fire, our emergency services are operating at maximum level. >> and real quickly, you mentioned the subway service. you think it will be up and running within a day or so? >> the mta is talking about trying to create a situation where we could have some buses operating, maybe some service on. my sense is this is going to take some time. there's a lot of flooding in our major subway stations. again, we haven't seen this in modern history, so obviously, a lot of what we're going to try to do is something we've never had to do before. >> yeah. >> my sense is we've got to get

people a timeline and a real transparent process so people in our neighborhoods understand that they'll get a sense of when they go back to work, when they can resume normal life. >> i'll have to remind you, mr. stringer, you have the new york city marathon scheduled for sunday. that means a lot of people expecting to come to this city. we wish you the very best of luck. >> thank you. >> as manhattan burrough president scott stringer. >> we will continue right after this. hey! you kids almost ready? i've got breakfast waiting for you.

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a record number of homeowners on new york's long island has lost power in the wake of sandy, and there's widespread flooding throughout the island. maria schiavacampo is with us live. >> reporter: conditions are still really bad here. this wind is pounding us. that's why i'm wearing these glasses because i'm getting sandblasted with the sand being blown in from the beach. i have some new information to share about conditions here. we have one fatality confirmed. we have reports of widespread water outages after a water plant here was flooded last night during the hyde height of that storm, but, of course, you mentioned the power outages. we're talking about almost a million people without power. the power authority says it could be seven to ten days before they're able to restore that. let me show you a little bit of the other damage, some of the stuff that's more visible. we can see here it looks like i'm standing on the beach. we're talking about a foot of snow here. this is a city -- i'm sorry -- of sand, rather. this is a city street that when

that water came in during high tide, that ocean rushed in here one resident said like the colorado river for several, several blocks, and when it receded it left behind all this sand, bringing essentially the beach well into the streets. can you also see some more of the damage here, property damage to homes. all of these vehicles that you are seeing, or most of them, were not parked here. they were brought in here by the force of that water that rushed through these homes, flooded at least one story high, and then came back out receded with the tide, but it left an awful lot of damage in its wake. you can see the garage doors have been reduced to pieces of wood, and this is not the worst of what is being seen around long island. there are places where people have reported up to four feet of flooding when the ocean and the bay came together and met. essentially flooding many, many homes up to the first story. people are still trying to deal with that. furniture from the living room

has been thrown into the yard. people's decks and patios have been washed away. you know, this is a beach community. a lot of people have boats. those boats now in many cases are on the lawn as opposed on the slip where they were parked last night. what the real moment of damage last night was when this ocean was in high tide and this storm was still raging and the ocean essentially looked like a raging river. one resident told me that it had a fury to it. we're also seeing a lot of damage from wind. we're seeing rooves that have been torn off, shingles that have been ruined and the like. that's why this area was under mandatory evacuation, but, of course, as always, lots of people ignored it, and now they're facing clean-up. savannah. >> we still hear that wind this morning. thank you very much. . we've been seeing how unsettled the weather is. it was nice for a while here behind us. it started to rain again. umbrellas back up. wind gusts here. no question about it. i've been showing you some of the twitter pictures that ewe been sending us. they've helped us. we haven't seen a lot of these

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